American Horror Story: Circus
by pepperforpresident
Summary: Meant to be read as a thirteen-chapter/episode season of AHS. Follow the performers of the Barnaby Traveling Circus as they journey across the country, come across some killer foes, and do everything they can to keep their show and each other alive.
1. Come One, Come All

"Mayor Carson! Over here!"

Victor was staring up at the night sky, stuck in a trance. An airplane flew overhead, miles and miles above him. He could barely make out the lights as it jetted across the sky and then disappeared above a cloud.

"Vic," grunted Ellen, nudging him in the rib with her elbow. He finally snapped out of it and turned to face his wife. She smiled and batted her eyes at him as if she was forced to. "Photo op, honey!" They both turned their heads to the press surrounding them. Ellen wrapped her arm around Victor's back; Victor brought his hand to Ellen's shoulder; neither one of them actually made contact with the other.

The cameras flashed and the journalists' minds buzzed thinking about the potential headlines they could make for the papers tomorrow morning: "THE CIRCUS BOASTS THE BEST: CARSON AND FAM GET FRONT-ROW SEATS"

Athena smiled as she saw the familiar face of Mayor Victor Carson walk past her and into the tent. She rearranged her tarot cards as a young boy ran over to her booth.

"Would you like me to tell your future?" she asked with a smirk.

"Pssh, no, I don't believe in that crap." Athena was stunned at hearing such vulgar language out of a boy that couldn't be older than 13. He ran off into the tent to get a good seat while Athena still sat there with a shocked expression on her face. Then it hit her. _That boy's got a hell of an evening ahead of him,_ she thought to herself. She checked her watch: just one more minute before the show was about to begin.

* * *

><p>Athena, the Barnaby Traveling Circus' resident fortuneteller, wasn't lying. An hour later, as the show came to its final act, that boy was about to regret ever stepping into that tent, or at least heckling the clowns. He had been doing it all night. It was just teen angst, probably. Circuses were for kids. They were no place for a 13-year-old. He should be at the movies with his friends, not inside some lame red-and-white tent watching a bunch of face-painted buffoons fumbling over themselves for cheap laughs.<p>

The booing and bothersome comments were certainly not unheard by the self-proclaimed leader of the clown troupe, Sanguine. He certainly lived up to his name, in all aspects. He was red from head to toe: red hat, red face paint, a perfectly polished red nose, light red shirt, dark red pants, sparking red-and-white striped oversized shoes. Everything on him was red, except for his pristine white gloves. And why did they call him Sanguine? Because he was the jolliest old man you ever could meet. His smile was almost contagious to the youngsters in the audience. Whenever his fellow clowns made mistakes (on purpose, of course, it was all part of the act), Sanguine would come to the cheerful rescue and help clean up the mess.

"Uh oh, it looks like Jumpin' Jack found… the cannon!" exclaimed Sanguine as they prepared for their final stunt. "But wait, Jack, I don't think any of us can fit in that thing!"

"Are you sure? Want me to check?" Jumpin' Jack, one of the clowns, climbed a stepladder and slowly tried to worm his way headfirst into the mouth of the cannon. To the hollering laughter of the kids in the crowd, he got stuck inside, and two of the other clowns had to grab him by his legs to yank him out.

"I think we need a younger member of the audience to help us out. What do you say?" All the kids began to shout and stand up and raise their hands, basically they lost their minds in an attempt to get Sanguine's attention so they could volunteer to try it. Sanguine pretended like he was scoping out the entire audience, but he knew exactly who he had in mind all along. He clumsily waddled over to the edge of the ring and came right up to the heckler, staring right at him with his signature smile.

"What's your name, buddy?" the old man asked.

Uninterested, the boy responded. "Jacob."

"Jacob! Come on in to the middle of the ring, you are a very lucky guest tonight, because you will be shot out of a real cannon, out of the tent, and… don't worry mom and dad, he'll land perfectly safe in our plushy pit right outside. Isn't that right, Jumpin' Jack?"

"Sure is, Sanguine!"

Sanguine extended his white-gloved hand to the boy, and Jacob reluctantly grabbed it before being yanked rather forcefully out of the stands. Jumpin' Jack and some of the other clowns came rushing over and fitted the boy with the necessary helmet and protective gear.

"Alright, Jacob, are you ready?" Sanguine sounded extra pumped to get the audience ready for this last spectacle.

"Not really…" whined the boy. He glanced over at his parents with a death stare. Had he gotten his fortune read by Athena moments before the show, he might have stared just a little bit longer.

Jacob was hoisted into the barrel of the cannon. Admittedly it was a snug fit, but he was still smaller than the adult clowns. Meanwhile two other clowns ran to opposite ends of the tent and pulled on some ropes that loosened a flap in the tent, exposing a big wide hole at the top through which the boy was about to fly. "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I will ask you to please count backwards from ten, and we will launch this boy into outer space!" Sanguine let out a bit of a maniacal laugh as Jumpin' Jack started the countdown.

_10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 6 … 5 … 4 …_

At that moment Jacob gulped. He realized that this was actually happening. Did he totally just forget that he was deathly afraid of heights? And he was going to be launched however many feet into the air and then plummet straight back to earth? He could feel himself shaking, and he wished he could say something to stop the clowns and get out and just run straight home. But by the time he even attempted to open his mouth to say something, the cannon went off.

Jacob didn't even remember passing through the tent. All he saw was the dark night sky above him. He kept going up and up, he started to think that he might never come back down. Unbeknownst to him, the same two clowns covered up the hole in the tent the second Jacob flew out of it.

Sanguine smiled. "Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen!"

Jacob started to feel the arch of the trajectory he was following and started to feel his body descend. He looked down, expecting to find the plushy pit Sanguine mentioned within sight. But there was nothing, nothing but the empty parking lot that extended beyond the tent. Jacob was about to scream, but then chose not to. He knew he was going to die. He wasn't going to survive this fall, even with all the protective gear they strapped onto him. He closed his eyes, braced for impact, and just a few seconds later he collapsed on the hard pavement.

He could feel himself being dragged just moments after he landed. Jacob opened his eyes, expecting to see the pearly gates in front of him, but all he saw was the night sky above. Two unknown people were pulling him, one taking each arm. Just about every part of him hurt. His shirt rode up a bit and he could feel his back being scraped by the rough blacktop. He also lost a shoe at some point, but he wasn't sure if it happened before, during, or after the fall. Jacob tried to crane his neck back a bit so he could try to see who was pulling him, but his head felt way too heavy, as if it was about to fall off. He just let whatever was happening happen.

* * *

><p>"Great show, Lura," commented one of the jugglers walking past the star acrobat of the Barnaby Traveling Circus.<p>

"Thanks," she replied, patting her coworker on the shoulder as she made her way into her dressing room. She closed the door behind her and let out a heavy sigh, removing the beaded bandana from her head and letting her golden locks fall just as gracefully as she did not too long ago. She found her water bottle on her makeup counter and took a swig of it to wet her whistle just before slipping out of the top of her skintight leotard. Lura walked over to her boudoir and opened the door. When she saw what was inside she screamed at the top of her lungs.

* * *

><p>Charles M. Barnaby stepped out of the tent after a great night's show. He removed his top hat and dabbed his brow with his handkerchief before making his way back to the circus train. As he did he saw an unknown figure standing there, seemingly waiting for someone.<p>

"Excuse me, can I help you?" he asked.

The person turned around. She looked very distinguished, as if she was practically a goddess. "Are you the Barnaby man I spoke to?"

"Yes, I am. Are you…"

"I go by many names. Some call me the Duchess. Others call me the Healer. Some others refer to me only as Her. You may call me Ruuxa."

"Well, _Ruuxa_, I appreciate you coming to my aid on such short notice. We have your room set up for you, I can show it you right now if you like."

"I don't need a room, Mr. Barnaby. I take up no home made by man. I choose to live in nature. With nature."

"Are you sure?"

"Let me ask you, Mr. Barnaby, what do you think I plan on doing with the large sum of money you promised to give me in return for my services?"

Barnaby hesitated a bit. "Is this meant to be a rhetorical question?"

Ruuxa adjusted her robes and crossed her arms. "There are lands in this country, in this world, that are being destroyed every day for selfish reasons. We cannot risk destroying our harmonious relationship with our sensuous world, Mr. Barnaby. Some of my followers and I are planning some peaceful protests. Your payment to me will be used for preparation, and perhaps a bit of bribery."

Barnaby couldn't help but roll his eyes, but he did it subtly, hoping she wouldn't notice. She did, and returned with a scornful look. "Mock my beliefs and causes all you want, Mr. Barnaby. But keep in mind that I am very powerful." She took a step closer to him in an attempt to intimidate him. "What you are asking me to do involves power beyond anything you might possess. You may have wealth and connections, but I could end your life with a simple thought. If you truly want me to help you for your little _project_, I suggest you keep your mouth shut. You do your thing, I do mine. I complete my mission, you return the favor. Nothing more will come of this." She stared him down intently. "Are we clear?"

"You listen to me, you shaman or whatever the hell you call yourself. I hold myself in very high esteem. I go to incredible lengths, endure unbearable hardships to get what I want, and it's gotten me to where I stand today. And where I stand is in front of you, _above_ you, not beneath you. I am employing you for a short time. You are to serve me from now until your services are no longer needed. Yes, I have wealth. Yes, I have connections. And with just those two things I can help give the go-ahead to have those bulldozers and tree-choppers clear your precious natural lands right off the map. I do not fear you. I do not cower in your shadow. I do not care what supernatural forces you utilize. You are below me. You cannot even present yourself in an appropriate manner. Look at your… _garbage garb_!"

With that Ruuxa smacked him right across the face.

"I'm leaving! Good luck with your little freak show or whatever you're attempting to concoct."

Barnaby rubbed his cheek and rolled his eyes once more. "Ruuxa, wait." She stopped, but still had her back turned to him. "I'll add an additional thousand dollars to your pay. With that I promise I won't belittle your operation, as long as you promise me the same." She turned back to face him.

"I'll see you in the morning, Mr. Barnaby."

"Great. And see that? You were drawn by my promise of money." He smirked at her, nagging "_I told you so_" in his head.

"Just be careful, Mr. Barnaby. What we are about to embark on is very dangerous, very dangerous indeed. Keep track of your staff, wouldn't want any of them stepping out of line."

She walked away, but her robes covered her feet so it appeared as if she was floating. Barnaby wondered if she actually was floating.

At that moment he heard Lura screaming in her room. He quickly ran to address the issue.

* * *

><p>"What's the matter, Lura?" Barnaby asked, barging into the room. He found Lura standing there, covering her bare chest with a towel, while a young man was sitting in the boudoir, covering his eyes.<p>

"He was hiding in my boudoir!" she shouted. Barnaby made a disgusted face and then grabbed a shirt for Lura to put on. He admired his lover's bare top in the process and then turned to the problem at hand.

"Alright, lad, she's decent."

The boy that was sitting in the boudoir uncovered his eyes and stood up. "I'm sorry, I really am, I… I snuck on here during the show and I guess I fell asleep. I swear, miss, I didn't mean to, like, peep on you or anything."

Barnaby grabbed the young man by the back of his shirt and began to haul him out of the room. "We do not carry stowaways, my boy. Please, be on your way."

"No, wait!" The kid tried his hardest to stop the man from manhandling him and managed to break free of his grip. "I want… I _need_ to join the circus."

Barnaby couldn't help but laugh. "If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say that, I wouldn't need this shit show to help me make a living." The ringmaster could tell the boy was serious. He didn't just want to join the circus, he had to. "What's your skill?"

"I'm sorry?"

"What's your skill? You thought we would just ship you off across the country with us while you just sit back and enjoy the shows? I don't think so. If you're going to join the circus, you will _join_ the circus. So, what's your skill?"

The boy was at a loss for words. "I—I don't have one, sir."

"What's your name?"

"Parker. Parker Redford."

"Now, Parker, I've spent years of my life hand-selecting these performers to make this one of the most spectacular spectacles on earth. In my twenty years of operation, I have _never_ allowed a kid to run away from home and become one of my performers. Take Lura here, for example. I spent years trying to convince her to come work for me. Why? Because she's the best at what she does, and I only hire the best."

At this point Parker was almost at the verge of tears. "Please, sir, I—"

"You will address me as Charles Barnaby, owner and ringmaster, and the man who just might hire you if you quit sniffling and tell me what you can do to make our circus better."

"I grew up on a farm not too far from here. I spent my whole life taking care of animals, I can help with yours."

"Something tells me you haven't had much experience with lions and tigers and bears," said Barnaby.

"Oh my!" exclaimed Lura, as if on cue. She giggled. Parker almost forgot she was even standing there.

"I don't, but I at least know how to handle animals. Isn't that something?"

"Like I said, Parker, I can't just hand out positions to any old farm hand. This is a business I run. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"Does the mayor always come to your shows, Mr. Barnaby?" Parker asked, sounding desperate at this point.

"Not always, tonight was a rather rare treat."

"And did you charge those press guys to come take pictures of him at the show?"

"No, they came on their own volition. They obviously have stories to write."

"If I were you, I would've charged them. They took pictures of one of your paying customers on the property you reserved for the show. And this is the most populated town in Long Island, Victor Carson is a pretty big deal to them. Next time, charge the photographers to get the shots they need."

Barnaby was immediately impressed. "You're a rather sharp thinker for a young boy like yourself."

"I'm not young, I just turned 19. And I've been going to night classes, I hope to be a successful businessman." For whatever reason, Parker looked at Lura. "Why else do you think I'm escaping the farm?" Lura smiled at him.

"You know what, Parker Redford? You may have just got yourself a place in this troupe."

"Really?"

"I could certainly use an advisor, an accountant of sorts. God knows none of these dimwitted performers could carry out addition or subtraction. I'll put you on a trial basis for the next week or so, see how you handle the show's expenses. And you can help Julius, our lion tamer, tend to the animals if you like. If you impress me, you can stay on. Do we have a deal?"

"Yes, sir! Thank you so much!" Parker instinctively hugged the man, catching Barnaby off guard.

"And it just so happens that we have a room available for you. Step outside a moment, will you? I'll show it to you in a few minutes." Parker listened to the man, gathered his belongings, and left the room. The minute the door closed Barnaby turned to Lura, tore off her shirt, and began to make out with her.

"Feisty, are we?" she managed to blurt out.

"I can't help it," he replied, fiddling with his zipper. "You turn me on more and more each day."

Lura slipped off the lower half of her leotard and let Barnaby force her against the back wall. "You're not jealous, are you? An attractive younger man peeping on me, ready to take me away from you?"

Barnaby absolutely loved it when she teased him like that. And Lura absolutely loved his rough lovemaking in response.

"Please, that boy has nothing on me. He could never… _hnnng_… please you like I do."

Once they both came and tidied up, Barnaby cordially showed Parker his new quarters, and Lura settled down from a rather eventful evening.

* * *

><p>"Is he ready?" asked Sanguine, walking into what he called 'the dungeon.' One of his fellow clowns nodded and the old man stepped forward. There he found Jacob, practically unconscious, strapped to a chair. Two other clowns were standing by his sides, guarding him, waiting for the okay from their boss.<p>

Sanguine admired their new specimen and addressed his henchmen. "Put him in the shackles. Make sure he's got clean water for the day ahead. The fun begins tomorrow night." Sanguine closed the door behind him and walked into his own room. When he opened the door he shuddered at what he found.

Jumpin' Jack wouldn't be jumping anymore, not when he's chopped up into dozens of pieces and left for Sanguine to see on his bedroom floor.

Sanguine scowled. "Looks like someone's after us, Jack," he said, talking to his deceased comrade. "The question is, _who_?" He then looked for something to cover up the body parts and mask the smell.

* * *

><p>At midnight, Barnaby very carefully slipped out of Lura's nude embrace, gathered himself in some boxers, a robe, and some slippers, and exited the train. About a mile's walk away was the ocean, and Barnaby quietly snuck his way over to the fishing docks.<p>

"Ah, pleasure to see you again," he said to a fisherman on his boat. "Have you done as I have asked?"

"Yeah, and I think you're going to like what I found," the fisherman replied. "Follow me." Barnaby stealthily stepped onto the man's boat and followed him around the back to where he kept his latest catch in a net.

"Oh my," the ringmaster let out. He saw dozens of dozens of fish, but that wasn't what he was interested in. Smack dab in the middle of the fish pile was a deceased woman. "Where did you find her?"

"She just came up in the net like that, swimming amongst the fishes," the fisherman replied. "I figured you would have a better use for her."

"I just might," Barnaby said, not taking his eyes off the body.

"I'm sure something was starting to nibble away at her legs, they're almost gone. But her torso's almost entirely intact, if that counts for anything."

"No, no, it's fine, really. In fact, it's… _perfect_," Barnaby stated, smiling as his mind buzzed with excitement.


	2. Lion Food

Lura woke up to find no one sleeping beside her, as usual. _Just one morning, that's all I ask for_, she thought to herself as she got out of bed and found some clothes to wear. _One morning where I can wake up nestled into the man I love._

She left the room and exited the train when she noticed Parker standing out in the field, looking dazed and confused. "Hey, Parker, right?"

"Oh, hi, um… I'm sorry, I forgot your name."

"Lura. Guess it's a bit hard to remember a girl's name when all you see is her bare chest." She flashed him a smile, assuring him she was okay with what happened last night.

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that. I just waltzed into the first car I got to and hopped into the boudoir so no one would find me. Again, _really _sorry, Lura."

"Don't be. Mistakes happen. So uh, I couldn't help but notice you looking like you lost your way out here. Anything I might be able to help you with?"

"Oh, um, I was looking for the animals. Figured I would get an early start and meet that lion tamer guy that Mr. Barnaby was talking about last night."

"The animals are out back, I can walk you there, introduce him to you."

"Yeah, sure, that'd be great!" Lura led him around the other side of the train.

"So, how did you put it last night? 'Escaping the farm,' are you? What is there to escape? I'd kill to live on a nice piece of farmland."

"Yeah, so long as you don't have to do any of the manual labor. That was one of the problems I was having. My stepbrother fell sick and died a few years back, so all the workload's been dumped on me."

"Oh my lord, I'm so sorry, Parker. What was it that killed him?" Lura could tell Parker was getting a bit uneasy talking about his home life. "I'm sorry, you don't have to talk about it if you don't want to."

Parker squeezed the bridge of his nose as he tried to hide back the tears. "No, um, talking about it is good. Putting everything out there and confronting it, it's cathartic, right?"

"If you think so."

"My dad used to abuse us. My brother wasn't ill, that's just the lie I've been used to telling. My father pushed him down a flight of stairs and he banged his head pretty bad. He got a concussion and… and that was it."

"Oh my goodness!" Lura regretted ever asking him. She didn't know it was going to be _that _cathartic.

"Things got better, for a little while. My dad started to feel bad about what he did, but that all stopped after about a year. Started hitting me again. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore." At this point the tears were streaming down Parker's face. Lura had no choice but to grab him close to her and hug him, comfort him. The young man nestled his head onto her shoulder and started to bawl. "I _killed_ him, Lura! I smashed his head right open! I couldn't _take_ it anymore! That's why I ran away!"

Lura couldn't believe what she was hearing. This poor young boy, what he must have gone through.

"Hey, hey, look at me." She pulled the sobbing kid off of her and held his face in her hands. "Listen to me. Every single one of us had a rocky past. We're all here for a reason. I know Barnaby said that he hand-selected us, but something about him has an eye for sympathy. It's like he knows that each and every one of his performers has had a tough life in the past, and he does so much to make it better for us." She used her thumb to wipe a tear from rolling down his cheek. "You're not alone, Parker. I've had my share of regrets, bad decisions, and horrible situations thrown at my face. We all have. It's what makes us unique. But more importantly, it's what makes us stronger. How many people can walk away from your situation and get a job at a circus the next day? Look at where you are right now. And look, you just made a new friend." She smiled at him, and he smiled back. "Now come on, time for you to make another new friend."

She grabbed his hand and started frolicking over to the animal cages. "Hey, Julius! I got someone for you to meet."

Julius was standing a few cages away, tossing a piece of raw meat at the lions. He dropped the meat bucket, wiped his hands on his pant leg, and jogged over to Lura and the boy she was standing next to.

"Julius, this is Parker Redford. Barnaby hired him last night, he's going to be his new accountant or assistant or something, his official title hasn't been fully worked out yet, I don't think. But he's also had some experience working on a farm and Barnaby said he could help you take care of the animals."

"Ah, great! I sure could use the help," the blonde man said, chuckling. "Julius Spick, I'm the lion tamer here." The men shook hands. Parker admired Julius' strong grip. "Say, why don't you help me out here with breakfast. I'm assuming you've never dealt with any wildlife before, have you, Parker?"

"Can't say I have, Julius."

Julius laughed. "Grab that bale of hay, toss it right into the elephant cage down over there." Parker stared at the massive elephant down the line of animal cages.

"Geez, I've never seen an elephant that close before!"

"Really? Never been to a zoo?" asked Julius.

"Julius used to work at the Bronx Zoo before coming to join us," said Lura as she sat down on a hay bale. "Hey Jules, I was just telling Parker about how we all came from rather dark circumstances. Why don't you tell him your story?"

Julius wiped his brow. "Alright, guess I could take a break." He plopped down next to Lura with a grunt. "So as Lura said, I was one of the animal caretakers at the Bronx Zoo. Loved it there, it was so great working with all the creatures. My best friend, Simon, and I, we used to host this show with the wolves. It was a big hit. One day Barnaby came to our show and he offered Simon a job to work with the animals in his circus. Simon of course took the job. Barnaby offered him a hell of a salary. And then, it happened." Parker could tell by the change in Julius' inflection that the dark part of the story was approaching. "Simon was leaving to join the circus the next day, and he was doing the lion feeding that night. Long story short, he slipped on one of the rocks and fell right into the lion's den. He was covered in the raw meat and the blood, and the lions, I'm talking like seven or eight of them, just started mauling him." Parker couldn't help but look over his shoulder at the lion Julius just fed. "Shook me up pretty badly, I didn't think I was ever going to be the same again. After a bit of a mourning period I decided to quit the zoo gig, and before long Barnaby got in touch with me, offering me the same position he offered Simon."

"But I thought you said you were never the same again after what happened," Parker interjected.

"I wasn't for a while. But Barnaby kept on pressuring me, and eventually I accepted the offer. Deep down, I still loved animals, still loved working with them. I couldn't let one incident, one that didn't even directly affect me, get in my way."

All three of them were silent for a few moments. Then Parker decided to divert the attention elsewhere. "Lura? What about you? What's your story?"

Julius gave Lura an uncomfortable look. "I've heard this one way too many times." He awkwardly got up and started to walk away. "I'm gonna finish feeding the… thing."

"Uh, should I not know about this or something?" asked Parker, now a unique combination of somewhat off-put yet also further intrigued.

"That depends, how does it make you feel knowing that I used to work in a brothel?" Parker's eyes widened. "Yep, I was a whore. A prostitute. Barnaby was a loyal customer and, well, let's just say he appreciated some of my… _flexibility_. Offered to pay me to do the same stuff but with clothes on and in front of a lot of strangers."

Silence. Prolonged silence.

"Um, wow. I—"

"And before you ask, sweetheart… no, I will not give you a private show." Lura gracefully got up and wiped her hands on her shirt as if she just didn't drop a major bombshell of her past on the poor young man. "Charles and I are very much in love. And we prefer our relationships monogamous."

"Oh, no, no, I would never, I mean, Lura, that was the last thing I would, I…" Parker couldn't help but laugh at his awkwardness and rub his head in his hands. "In case you couldn't tell, I'm a virgin."

"_Shocker_," Lura sighed sarcastically. She smiled at him. "You'll find the right girl in time, Parker. Just not me." She turned to walk away, but over her shoulder she said softly, "At least not right now." Revealing a bit of her flexibility, Lura turned her upper half to wink at Parker, then twisted herself forward once more, all without missing a single step.

Lura smiled to herself as she walked back to the train. Talking to Parker made her, for some reason, extremely horny, and she desperately wanted to find Barnaby so he could help take care of the problem. She sneakily stuck her hand down her pants as she headed to her boudoir, but suddenly she felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Oh, _Jesus_, Athena! You scared the crap out of me!"

"Sorry, darling. Didn't mean to cause a fright. But could I have a word with you? It's rather urgent."

Lura didn't like the shift in tone of Athena's voice. She was psychic, like actually psychic. Most circuses have the phonies that just tell people very vague and rehearsed bits of information, but Athena was an authentic. _Oh shit_, Lura thought. _What did she see?_

* * *

><p>"Meeser Barnaby, there is a man and a woman here to see you," said Diego, the Barnaby Traveling Circus' sword swallower.<p>

Charles finished writing his sentence before getting up and thanking Diego for delivering this information to him. "Uh, Diego, while you're here. How's our little _project_ coming along?"

"I am almost done with the stitches, Meeser Barnaby. She should be ready by nightfall."

"Excellent. Well, I don't want to keep you, that will be all." Diego left, and Barnaby looked in his mirror to straighten his bowtie, even thought it was already perfectly straight.

He walked outside the train and, just as Diego had warned him, a very anxious-looking couple was waiting for him.

"Charles Barnaby, my name is Victor Carson, I'm the town mayor. This is my wife, Ellen." The stranger stuck out his hand to shake Barnaby's, and the ringmaster replied with a very forceful shake.

"Pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mayor Carson." Barnaby took Ellen's hand and very suavely caressed it, brought it to his lips, and gave it a firm yet gentle kiss. Ellen couldn't help but blush. "I hope you don't mind my saying this, Miss Carson, but you are absolutely breathtaking."

"Oh my, quite the charmer, Mr. Barnaby." Ellen almost didn't want to retract her hand from Barnaby's hold. _When was the last time Victor ever held my hand? _she asked herself, realizing she couldn't quite recall. _He's a pig compared to this gentleman._

"I only found out after last night's show that you two were in attendance. My sincerest apologies, I would have made sure to give you a very proper introduction."

"Thank you, but we're not royalty. We just wanted to spend some time with our son, we figured the circus would be an excellent way to treat him," Victor said, cautiously putting his arm around Ellen.

"And how did your son enjoy the show?"

"We don't know," Victor replied.

"Jacob is missing," interjected Ellen. "He was used in your clowns' cannonball stunt last night, which frankly I didn't very much care for, and he never returned to us. That head clown, what was his name, something weird, something you wouldn't quite expect a clown to be named…"

"Ah, are you referring to Sanguine?" asked Barnaby, hesitant to slip out his name.

"Yes! That's it. He told us they were cleaning up and he should be out shortly. Victor got an important call after that and we had to leave, we just assumed Jacob would find his way home. But he never did."

"Did you speak with Jacob, Mr. Barnaby? Do you have any idea if he did in fact leave your circus and come home? I know it's a bit ridiculous but you know how these kids get, always planning on running away to join the carnies." Victor gave a slight chuckle.

Barnaby glared at him angrily. "We are not _carnies_, Mr. Carson. That phrase is outdated and is not applicable to our troupe of very talented performers. I would very much appreciate if you would refrain from using such harsh language." He noticed that Victor and Ellen were extremely taken aback by his stern outburst, but it needed to be said. Barnaby quickly regained his composure and resumed. "I did not speak or interact with Jacob last night, and I unfortunately have no idea of his whereabouts. He is certainly not amongst our company at the moment, I can assure you of that."

"A bit negligent, don't you think?" asked Victor, suddenly accusatory. "You involve a member of the audience in one of your potentially-life-threatening stunts, and you, the owner and proprietor of this fine entertainment establishment, aren't even sure if he made it out alive in the end?" Barnaby just stared the man down, knowing very well that he was right. "You might be looking at a very serious lawsuit, Mr. Barnaby. We're going to give it a day. If we still get no new information on Jacob's whereabouts, we'll be back, and we'll insist on talking to your friend Sanguine."

Victor turned around forcefully and began to walk away. Then he noticed his wife was still standing there. "Let's _go_, Ellen!" Ellen gave a half-smile-half-frown to Barnaby before following her husband. "Jesus, Ellen, I try to make an impactful exit and you just linger like that?!" Barnaby wanted to chuckle at the couple's feud, but realized there was a bigger problem on his hands that he needed to face.

* * *

><p>"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you!" Barnaby fretfully wandered up to his lead clown, who was hunched over dealing with something in a bag outside the lion's cage. Sanguine didn't respond at first, so Barnaby sent a whack to the elder man's back.<p>

"Ouch! Geez, Charles, do you have to be so rough with me? I'll be 70 years old in a couple of days. Which reminds me, can we discuss what we're gonna do for my birthday this year?"

"Sanguine, we may have a crisis on our hands," Barnaby said, rubbing his temples to soothe the headache that was just starting to emerge.

"I was thinking, you know, nothing big, just you and I, some of the boys from the clown posse, Lura of course—she's practically my daughter-in-law after all, say when are you gonna pop the question already? I mean I know I'm an old fart but I know sex noises when I hear them, and boy, you've been making her scream like a banshee every night for years!"

"_Focus_, old man!"

Sanguine stopped his yammering. He could tell his son was seriously ticked. "Alright, boy, calm down. What's the problem?"

"I've just been in an altercation with Victor Carson, the mayor of this town that has so graciously let us perform here this week. And he demands to know the whereabouts of his son." Sanguine gave him a perplexed look. He wasn't connecting the dots. "Jacob. The boy you used in your stunt last night, and I'm assuming your most recent… _souvenir_."

"Oh! Little Jake and I have become very close over the last couple of hours. Let's see, I shackled him up in the dungeon—and he's much bigger than the kids I usually take, so he's probably a bit uncomfortable in those small chains—and what else, um, oh, I whipped him a few times, collected his blood, and now I'm looking forward to touching up the walls in my room with it."

"I thought we had an agreement. You can keep up your little _fetish_—"

"Hey!" Sanguine barked. "How many times do I need to say this before you engrain it into your goddamn memory, Charles? It's not a fetish! I find no sexual pleasure in tormenting little snot-nose kids, it's just a hobby! Besides, you think I could even get it up at this age? I don't think I've had an orgasm in… how old are you?"

"While I'd love to sit here and reminisce about the night of my conception, I'd much rather return to the business at hand. Normally when you take a child from our audience, you… _ensure_ that no one will come knocking on our doorstep, especially the child's parents! Now of all the times this could have happened, you had to fuck up when it's the _mayor_'s son?!"

"Do you want to know why it wasn't taken care of, Charles? Take a look behind me." Barnaby looked over Sanguine's shoulder and saw what he was fiddling around with before he started speaking to him. It was a burlap sack filled with body parts.

"Is that… Jacob Carson?"

"Nope. It's Jack. Jumpin' Jack."

Barnaby's face dropped. "You killed him?"

"Oh, no, not I. He was left as a present for me to find. Someone murdered him. Who? I don't know. But I have a pretty good feeling Jumpin' Jack won't be his first victim. You and I have created a lot of enemies over our time together, Charles. I figured it was about time one of them started looking for revenge." Barnaby was stunned. His circus was under attack. "I've alerted the rest of the clowns, they all know that they need to be cautious, and I told them that if they see any suspicious activity to report it to you or me."

"Should we inform the authorities?"

"Charles, think about what you just said! Get the _police_ involved in something like this? They'll be searching our whole train, and you know what they'll find." Sanguine bent down to pick up the sack of parts. "Do you think they allow fathers and sons to share a prison cell? It could finally give us that time to really bond."

"Alright, your sarcasm is noted. No police, just… be careful. Now what does Jack's death have to do with the Carsons?"

"I put Jack on duty to take care of the parents. Guess someone took care of him before he got the chance to. Now are you going to keep yapping, or are you going to help me? I'm too old for this shit." Barnaby helped Sanguine lug the sack closer to the cage, and the two began hauling limb after limb inside, just in time for the lion's lunch.

* * *

><p>Barnaby's mind was reeling. Not only was the mayor hot on his trail, but now they were also dealing with some kind of murderer. His heart started racing as he approached his office, and he had the good idea to scream into a pillow once he got there.<p>

But he couldn't.

When he opened the door, Lura was sitting in his chair, and she effortlessly spun herself to face him.

"Actually, sex might help calm me down," he said to her with a grin on his face.

"You will not lay a finger on me." She said it so coldly and so frighteningly that he felt the need to take a step back.

"What's gotten into you?"

"I spoke with Athena today. She had something pretty important to tell me."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

"My baby is alive."

Those words cut through Barnaby like a knife. Lura could see the color leave his face. "What did you just say?"

"You heard me. She said she could sense his presence, like she picked him up on her radar or something." Lura stood up and slowly started stepping towards Barnaby. It was then that he noticed the letter opener she wielded in her right hand. "Isn't it amazing? Because I thought he died. You assured me of that. So who's lying, Charles? The one who can sense my little boy's heart beating miles away? Or you, the man who spent his lifetime and more lying to everyone who ever got close to him?"

"Lura, please, I don't have time for this. And I don't know where your baby is." Barnaby began to rub his temples again. "There's so much going on right now, you probably wouldn't even believe it if I told you."

"I don't give a fuck about your problems. What I care about is finding my son." Like a gazelle she leapt towards him and pinned him against the door, placing the letter opener at his throat. "Where is he?"

"Lura, you're unhinged. You're acting like a madwoman. Put that down and let's calmly talk about this." He could tell she was on the verge of tears.

"No, I know you're lying! Tell me where he is!" Her crying gave Barnaby the perfect opportunity to shove her off of him. She landed on the floor with a thud.

"What is the matter with you?!" he shouted, knowing that everyone on the train probably heard him.

"You're sick! You've been hiding him from me all these years! Tell me where he is! Where's my baby? Where is he?"

"_Enough!_" Barnaby picked up the inconsolable woman that he loved and hauled her over his shoulder. She started to kick and scream and worm her way out of his grasp, but it was of no use. She was putting too much energy into crying to physically win. "There's too much on my plate right now, Lura. The last thing I need is to deal with this mess." He carried her down a few cars to where they kept all the funhouse mirrors in a room about the size of a large closet. He opened the door and threw her inside. Her body crashed against a few of the mirrors, and they shattered behind her. "I can't do this right now, Lura. Just please know that I love you." And before she could clear her eyes and ask him what he was talking about, he closed the door and locked it.


	3. The Exchange

Barnaby didn't remember falling asleep, but at some point after locking Lura away, he did.

"Meeser Barnaby? Meeser Barnaby? Meeser Barnaby!" Diego was hurriedly trying to wake up his boss. Eventually Charles did, almost horrified.

"Diego, what is it? Can't you see I'm very stressed and need a minute to rest?"

"That's just it, Meeser Barnaby, you've been resting for almost a whole day."

"What?" Barnaby looked out the window and noticed the sun was just about to start rising. "My goodness, is everyone alright?"

"Yes, why wouldn't we be?"

"Because there's a supposed killer after us!" Barnaby held his head in his hands. "I was so careful. My business was doing so well. Now all of a sudden it's falling apart." He then lifted his head, remembering what he endured the previous day. "You haven't heard from Lura, have you?"

"No, Meeser Barnaby. I haven't seen her since yesterday morning, when she was feeding the animals with that farm boy."

"Was she now?" Even Barnaby could sense the tone of jealousy in his own voice. Diego looked at him, confused. "Lura is a bit upset at me at the moment, I'm afraid she ran off, stayed in a motel or something, I'm sure."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Meeser Barnaby. Nothing like a lover's quarrel, am I right?" Diego smiled, trying to cheer the man up.

"You… you don't know the half of it, Diego." Barnaby spotted a glass of water on his desk and swiftly took a large gulp. "How's the girl?"

"That's what I came here to tell you, Meeser Barnaby. She is ready. Where is the mysterious lady you hired to help us?"

"She's a bit of a free spirit, my friend. My guess is she turns into dust and just floats around in the breeze until we call upon her for her service." He took another gulp, leaving a tiny layer of water left at the bottom of the glass. "There's still the problem of finding someone to… _sacrifice_. The girl is dead, and the whole point of this project is to revive her."

Diego crossed his arms and looked outside, thinking of whom they might use. "Do you have anyone in mind, Meeser Barnaby?"

"I'll tell you who," Barnaby said jokingly, "Victor or Ellen Carson. It would certainly kill two birds with one stone, getting them off my back as well as accomplishing this monstrous task." He turned the glass upside down, sipping the last remaining bit of water. "Give me the rest of the morning to sort it out, and then I'll summon Ruuxa the Magnificent or whatever the fuck she wants to be addressed as." Barnaby stood up and stretched a well-needed stretch, having slept in his desk chair for several hours. He couldn't help but smile. _I have the woman of my dreams locked away in a closet_, he reminded himself, just to make sure that was a factual statement. "Diego, you, in the meantime, prepare everything for the procedure. We have one final show here and I want to make it spectacular. We need this girl ready by then, and we're getting it done today."

"Yes sir, Meeser Barnaby!" Like a child, Diego saluted his boss and left his office to do exactly as he was instructed. As he left he couldn't help but see a pair of headlights coming from outside. A woman with auburn hair stepped out of the car, wearing a sleek black dress and pointy black high heels. She was admittedly breathtaking. Diego immediately frowned, knowing he could never attract someone like that. The woman started walking closer to the train, and the sword swallower started to recognize her. The last time he saw her was yesterday, but she was with a man that time; today she was on her own. He came to the conclusion that she was here to see Barnaby, and knowing his boss had a lot of work to get done, Diego took it upon himself to confront the woman.

The woman was noticeably startled when she saw Diego exit the train just as she was approaching it. "Oh, um, hello. I need to speak to Charles Barnaby."

"And who might I ask is here to see him?"

"My name is Ellen Carson, he and I spoke yesterday."

_Ellen Carson_, Diego thought to himself, repeating the name over and over again. "Ah, yes, Mees Carson. Meeser Barnaby told me that he is running a bit late for your meeting." Diego suavely tried to wrap his arm around her shoulder to redirect her away from the train, but like a trained martial artist, she swiped his hand away before it could land on her.

"Mr. Barnaby and I did not have a meeting scheduled. I'm dropping by unannounced because I have some information that needs to be brought to his attention."

"Meeser Barnaby is currently tied up in something much more important, but he will be out very shortly, I can assure you, Mees Carson." She gave him a very disapproving look. _This is the kind of woman who gets what she wants when she wants it. She does not take no for an answer. Only more reason for her to never want a guy like me_. "Mees Carson, have you been to our show?"

"I was here the other night, yes. When my family was whole."

"Do you remember my performance?"

"Sadly I don't remember you. My husband and I had to leave early, we must have missed you."

Diego frowned. "I was the first act."

_Shit_, Ellen thought, knowing she got caught in her lie.

"While we wait for Meeser Barnaby, would you like me to show you how I swallow swords?"

* * *

><p>Lura couldn't sleep. She was propping herself up against the door, looking at the mirror that smashed into dozens of pieces when she fell into it. Her face was hardly recognizable as the shattered shards and holes distorted her pristine reflection. <em>Just like that mirror<em>, she thought to herself, _I am broken. I miss my baby so much. All this time I thought he was gone. And now all this time he's been out there, without a mother. Neglected. Oh, my poor baby._

She started to cry, which made it about the fifteenth time she'd started to cry since Barnaby locked her away in there. She couldn't really remember exactly how many times, she lost count after the tenth. Lura held her head with a hand on either side. She could tell she was physically shaking. Her stomach churned violently, a combined result of her being sickened by this inconvenient truth, along with the fact that she hadn't eaten in a day.

"_Mama_," she heard, like a whisper. Lura lifted her head and opened her eyes, startled by the voice. She swiveled her head back and forth, but clearly there was no one in the cramped room with her, just dozens and dozens of warped funhouse mirrors.

"Am I losing my mind?" she said out loud. And then, as if it was responding to her, a baby started to whine, as if it was in the distance somewhere. "David? Is that you, baby?"

There was hardly any light in there, just some slipping in from the cracks above and below the door, and from a vent all the way at the ceiling. But the lights seemed to be aiming at something. Lura looked into one of the mirrors and saw something. A figure. No, two figures. The picture got clearer and clearer, and she realized she was looking at herself, cradling her baby boy. The acrobat gulped hard with whatever remaining saliva she had left. She remembered this instant. She remembered this day. And as if it were her mind on a projector screen, that horrible day began to play in front of her in the mirror image.

* * *

><p>"Hello, doll," said Barnaby as he entered the brothel.<p>

"Ugh, it's you again," responded Lura. "Look, how many times do I have to tell you? I'm perfectly happy in this place. I don't need to join no fancy circus."

"I don't think you understand, Lura. I don't just _want_ you in my show, I _need_ you in it. And I am a man that can make anything possible if I desire it enough."

"What are you saying, Mr. Barnaby?" Lura put her hands on her bare hips and stood mere inches away from the fully suited man. "Are you implying that you're going to force me to work for you? Last time I checked, slavery's been long abolished. I said no. A gentleman like you should know that when a woman says no, she means 'back off.'" She glared at him but couldn't help bite her bottom lip. It was so hard to keep a straight face when looking at this man. She was incredibly attracted to him. At this point they'd only come in contact three or four times, but Lura lusted after him hard. "I've done well for myself here. I'm happy here. And I have a baby at home. I can't be traveling across America walking a tightrope with an infant hanging off my tit. Maybe in a few years, when he's older, I'll accept your offer, Charles. But not now."

Barnaby was enraged, but he concealed it with a gentle smile. "Very well, Miss Lura. If you don't mind I'd like to stop by and… _visit_ you again sometime."

Lura smiled back. "I tend to get repeat customers, Mr. Barnaby." She winked seductively. "I'd be happy to have you back."

"Goodbye, Lura, hopefully fate will allow our paths to cross again." She gave a faint wave and watched him leave, and then took a sigh of relief and prayed that was the last time he would pester her about joining his show.

After her shift was over, Lura put on her fluffy coat and trudged the eight or nine blocks through the freshly fallen snow to her house. She lived in a cruddy apartment complex. Exterminators were coming in almost once a month. She needed to get out of there fast, for the safety of her baby boy. _That raise had to be coming soon enough_, she assured herself.

"David, Mama's home," she said. "Andy?" She was surprised to see that there were no lights on in the house, as well as no sight of her next-door neighbor and babysitter Andy. "Come on, don't be playing a trick on me, Andy, I've had a long night." She stumbled into her bedroom, and turned on the light, only to find Andy tied to a chair, mumbling around the gag in his mouth for help. Before she could even react, Lura felt a gun being pressed to her head.

"Hello, Lura." Barnaby stepped out from the darkness and stood behind Andy. "I just had the pleasure of meeting Andy. Sadly now we'll be saying goodbye. You won't be needing a babysitter." And with that Barnaby pulled out a gun and shot the man right in the back of the head. "Diego, would you mind untying Andy and making this look like a suicide? Here, take my gloves." The ringmaster removed his pristine white gloves and handed them to his henchman, a muscular black man. "This is Diego, our talented sword swallower. He's practically my right hand. Not that I don't have one myself!" Barnaby guffawed at his own joke, shaking his right hand around. Then in an instant he went from cracking an admittedly horrible joke to stern and terrifying. "What was it I told you moments ago, Miss Lura?" He stepped around the dead man in the chair and came face-to-face with the blonde woman. "Oh that's right, _I can make anything possible if I desire it enough_."

Lura had no choice but to spit right in his face. Barnaby removed his handkerchief and wiped off her saliva. "Well, we all know you're a fan of spitting…"

"Where's my son, you prick?"

"Taken care of."

Lura's eyes widened. "You… did you kill my baby?"

"Oh no, on the contrary, my dear. He's just… away for a while. Think of little David as… _insurance_. You agree to join my circus. Wow the audience. Make the fathers desperate to bring their kids just so they can see you contort yourself in every which way, in ways they didn't even know were possible in their own dreams. Make me lots of money. I know you can. And as long as you stay in line, you'll get your son back."

Tears started to stream down Lura's face. "You're a sick fuck, you know that? If you think I'm going to be a part of your little game…"

"Or with just the snap of my fingers, I can order David's head to be chopped off and fed to my very hungry lions." At this point Diego had finished rearranging Andy's body so it looked like no one but himself was responsible for his death. "Is there anything more precious than the love between a mother and her son? Especially at this age, a young infant needs his mother to survive. We've got plenty of formula on hand for him, unless you're okay with a wet nurse. I'm sure we could have that arranged."

On instinct, Lura kicked Barnaby right in the gut. The man holding the gun to her head grabbed her and restrained her, while Diego ran up to his boss and helped him to his feet.

"There's no getting out of this, Lura," Barnaby said, admittedly as best he could with the wind knocked out of him. "You and your son will be together again so long as you obey me."

* * *

><p>The vision of the past suddenly disappeared, and Lura was looking at her present face in the mirror. Her face was soaked in her own tears. <em>I don't even remember what he looks like<em>, she thought to herself. _But he's out there somewhere. And I need to find him._ Lura regained a bit of confidence, but then immediately fell back into grief. The only one who knows where David could be is Barnaby, and there's no way he would tell her. And he certainly wouldn't tell her now that she knows her baby is alive. _I'll probably spend eternity in this closet. He's going to starve me out. Let me waste away on my own. Let me live with the fact that my son is out there and let me die knowing we will never meet again. This is his plan. This is all part of his plan._ She started to cry for the sixteenth time.

* * *

><p>"Whew! That was horrifying!" exclaimed Ellen. Diego had taken her into his room and showed her all of his various swords. He had just finished plunging a broadsword down his gullet and spewed it back up like it was as simple as chewing a stick of gum.<p>

"Not at all, Mees Carson. I've been doing it for ages. A blade like this?" He skillfully placed his finger at the sword's tip and spun the blade between his two hands. "This doesn't frighten me. A woman like you, however… terrifying?"

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"You are extremely beautiful, Mees Carson. You wear extravagant clothes, you probably sleep on a bed of diamonds. You have beauty. Brains. Money. Power. That is a very lethal combination. Meeser Barnaby is aware of that."

"Barnaby and I have all that in common, actually. He has that same combination, unlike my asshole of a husband. Beauty? Hardly. Brains? Sure, I'll give him that. Money? All mine. Power? I think we all know who runs this town, and it sure as shit isn't Victor Carson."

"You speak so poorly of your husband. Why?"

"Because we don't love each other. He doesn't love me, and in return I don't love him back."

"I see no reason why Meeser Carson wouldn't love you." Diego flashed her a fantastic smile. Ellen couldn't control herself. She lunged at the man, attacking him with her mouth. Diego didn't see that coming and wasn't sure how to respond.

"You know, I think I might be able to try sword swallowing," she whispered into his ear, groping his chiseled chest. "I don't have a gag reflex." Ellen put her hand between Diego's legs, only to discover that she was grabbing onto nothing. She quickly jumped off of him and put her hands over her mouth. "I am so sorry…" and then she realized she totally forgot the sword swallower's name.

"What do you have to apologize for, Mees Carson? You're not the one who castrated me." She still stood there, unsure of how to react. "If it's any consolation, if I had a dick, it would certainly be hard."

"That's, um… good to know." She was silent for a few moments, thinking of a way to quickly change the subject. "Is Barnaby ready to speak to me yet? Because I really need to—" Ellen was cut off by Diego smashing the handle of the broadsword against the side of her head. She fell to the ground with a thud, completely unconscious.

"It was a pleasure speaking with you, Mees Carson."

* * *

><p>Barnaby paced back and forth anxiously, biting his thumbnail in anticipation. <em>I haven't bitten my nails in years<em>, he realized. _It's the stress. Everything's happening at once, it's getting to me._

Suddenly Diego emerged from the curtain behind him. "It's all ready, Meeser Barnaby. Has Ruuxa arrived yet?"

"No!" Diego jumped at Barnaby's forceful reply. "I apologize, I'm just very anxious, and nervous, and concerned. And… I talk a lot when I'm anxious and nervous and concerned. Do me a favor, Diego? Run into town and fetch me some tea? I'm all out and I really need something to soothe my nerves."

"Certainly, Meeser Barnaby. Right away."

"Will you be okay if you miss the procedure?"

"I've seen plenty of kooky things in my lifetime, Meeser Barnaby. A break from this train for a few minutes would be much more exciting than whatever it is you have planned."

"Oh, and Diego? Thank you so much for helping get Ellen off my back. When I said I wanted to use the Carsons, I never meant it literally, but it certainly does help us out. You're a great help and a true friend." Diego didn't even say anything in response. He just smiled and left to get his boss some tea. He would rob a city of tea if he had to for this man.

Just like that, as Diego made his departure, a new guest arrived. Ruuxa. The Duchess. The Healer. Her.

"Glad you could finally make it, Ruuxa," Barnaby said, greeting the woman with a handshake. She refused it, and demanded to know where the woman was. The ringmaster led her past the curtain, where two tables were laid out. Atop of one lied Ellen Carson's unconscious body. Atop the other lied some bizarre concoction of beings. It certainly was manmade, that was clear from the visible stitch marks that connected them.

The girl that the fisherman found half-eaten in the ocean was firmly attached to the lower half of some large fish. Ruuxa wasn't entirely sure what it was, perhaps shark or bass. Maybe not bass, the girl was much too big for a bass, and the sizes were perfectly matched, for the girl's waist seemed to blend right into the scaly fish tail. Ruuxa was impressed. It did almost look real and convincing.

"Are we ready to bring this girl life?" she asked, with a commanding tone.

"Absolutely. Hopefully this all goes right, unlike just about everything else in my business right now."

Ruuxa chuckled. "Uh-oh, trouble in circus paradise?"

"You could say that."

"Now, calm down, Barnaby. Come join me. Let us meditate. Let us call forth the divine forces beyond our world, call upon them to aid in our excursion at the boundary between life and death." Barnaby was clueless as to what was happening, but he took Ruuxa's hand and they stood next to each other, eyes closed. "Let us exchange life forces. One woman shall die, the life will leave her body. The other shall be brought life anew, and shall walk among the earth once again!" Ruuxa lifted both her arms in the air. "Or in this case… swim."

Barnaby opened his eyes and could faintly make out a smoky apparition leave Ellen's mouth and worm its way to the other table and enter the mouth of the young girl. He was truly astonished. He had never seen anything like it. The color immediately left Ellen's skin. She was dead. Nothing killed her but the absence of life. The girl on the other table, however, was slowly starting to regain consciousness. Then she started gasping, as if breathing was something she had forgotten. Then she started hyperventilating. She managed to sit up and stared uncomfortably at the people around her. Then she started screaming.

"No, no, it's alright, dear. It's okay." The girl was absolutely petrified. "Julius! Come in here now, please!" Barnaby tried to restrain the woman as she flailed around aimlessly, while the fish tail seemed to have a mind of its own and started smacking hard against the table. Ruuxa, meanwhile, stood at Ellen's side, took the woman's now cold hand in hers, and began to chant something in a whisper. Barnaby didn't bother to ask what she was doing, but rather focused on keeping the manmade mermaid okay.

Shortly after, Julius entered the room. "Holy… shit. You… you actually did it."

"Julius, I'd like you to meet… I guess we haven't come up with a name for her." Julius stared at the woman, who was still visibly horrified and unsure of what was going on.

"She looks like a Cassandra," the lion tamer suggested. He smiled at the mermaid, and just like that, she seemed to calm down. Barnaby noticed she wasn't shaking anymore.

"Well she certainly seems to like you, Julius. And that's a good thing. I'm putting her in your care. I guess technically she's an animal, but don't forget she's half human, too. I want her to make her grand appearance in tomorrow night's show, so do whatever you feel necessary to prepare her for that." He looked at his creation. Something inside him couldn't help but think he was a god. "She obviously doesn't like strangers, and the last thing we need is a terrified mermaid. We need the people to think she's authentic. Understand me, Julius?"

"Absolutely, boss." Julius walked up to the girl. "Hi. I'm Julius. Can I call you Cassandra?" The girl tried to respond, but clearly speech was something that would take time to re-master. "I guess we'll get to working on that." He hated to admit it, but she was beautiful. He reached out his hand and caressed her cheek.

"Ca… Casssss…" she tried desperately to sound out her new name.

"Cassandra," Julius finished for her. "Cassandra."

"I need to go now, Mr. Barnaby," said Ruuxa, putting Ellen's lifeless hand back down on the table.

"Very well then, I shall have your payment ready tomorrow if you wish to come back then." He walked her to the door. "Ruuxa, thank you very much. I apologize for our little tiff during our first meeting. I truly appreciate what you've done for me and for this circus."

She didn't respond, just giggled, and then walked away with the wind. It was at that moment that Barnaby recalled their first meeting. _What was it she said to me? 'Keep track of your staff'_…

* * *

><p>Barnaby couldn't wait to get in bed and receive a full night's sleep. It was going to be different without Lura by his side, but he tried to forget all about her. He stripped nude and slipped under the covers. He tossed and turned a little bit, trying to get comfortable. Then he found the spot that he and Lura normally lie in, with him as the big spoon. Barnaby reached out across the bed as if he was wrapping his arm around her.<p>

He jumped when he actually felt something there.

Hurriedly he hopped out of bed and turned on the light. Under the sheet he found Diego, chopped up into several pieces. There was a note lying on top of them all. He grabbed the note with a shaking hand and read it: "THAT'S ALL OF HIM, ALTHOUGH ONE PIECE WAS ALREADY MISSING."


	4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Julius sat down and admired what he accomplished in such little time. He managed to fill a basin with water and acclimate Cassandra into it. "Sorry you have to settle for a dollar-ninety-nine-cent bin, we'll get you something better before the next show."

"I-I—" she tried to vocalize what she was feeling, but speech was still incredibly difficult for her. Julius looked at her arm and saw bumps forming. He then heard her teeth chatter rapidly.

"You're cold?" She quickly nodded her head. "Do you want to get out of the water?" He mimed picking her up and putting her down on the ground. She nodded again. "Alright, one sec…"

Julius found a few towels nearby. He placed one on the floor, then slung one over his shoulder. "Okay, come here. Put your arms around my neck." She understood him and looped her only limbs around his head, then gasped with excitement as he reached down into the water and hoister her up, one arm at her back, the other arm beneath her fish tail. He accidentally fell back a bit, but regained his footing. Cassandra chuckled at his clumsiness. Julius chuckled with her and without taking his eyes off of hers, carefully placed her down on the towel. Once she was seated he took the other towel off his shoulder and used it to dry her off. She was completely bare, and her nipples proved she was freezing cold. Instinctually he dried her off there first, but she didn't seem to mind.

"Oh, uh, I have something for you," Julius said, remembering what he toiled over before falling asleep last night. He wandered into the back corner of the room and returned with something in his hands. "Lura, one of our acrobats, has left us for a while, so I don't think she'll mind that I took one of her bras. And I, um, I went to the beach last night and found some seashells. I glued them onto the cups, just like the Little Mermaid." Cassandra was curious and intrigued. "Want me to help you put it on?"

She gave him a nod. "Yyeh," she mumbled. Julius crouched down behind her and helped loop her arms through the bra. Once he clasped it he hesitantly reached around and adjusted the shells to make sure they fit. Cassandra put her hands on top of his, turned her head around to face him, and smiled.

* * *

><p>"Ah, Parker, good morning," said Barnaby as he made his way down the length of the train.<p>

"Morning, Mr. Barnaby."

"How have the animals been? I apologize, I meant to check in with you sooner but there's been a lot on my plate lately."

"Oh, they're fine. Actually, I've been looking for Julius. I can't find him anywhere."

"Julius is busy at the moment, I have him working on a very special project that needs to be ready before tonight's show. And with him doing that, I'm in need of your assistance."

"Sure, what for—"

"Well, good morning, gentlemen!" exclaimed Sanguine as he strolled down the hallway.

"Ah, if it isn't the _other_ man I've been needing to speak to," said Barnaby, a bit sarcastic. Parker caught his tone. "Parker, would you mind waiting out here for a moment? I need to speak to Sanguine privately, it's a matter of utmost urgency."

"Oh, sure. I guess I'll pop in and say hi to Lura—"

The ringmaster quickly cut the farm boy off. "Lura's… no longer with us."

"What do you mean?"

"She and I got in a bit of a fight the other night, I'm afraid she's run off." Parker looked extremely disappointed. Lura was the first friend he made in this place. And just like that, she was gone. "Excuse me, Parker. I'll be out shortly." Barnaby shoved his father into the adjacent room and closed the door behind them.

"What do you mean Lura left?" asked Sanguine, concerned.

"She hasn't left, you buffoon. She… I locked her away for a while."

"So does that mean she won't be joining us for dinner tonight?"

"Dinner? What—oh for fuck's sake. Happy birthday." Barnaby's face softened as he gave the man a hug. "So, who's all coming?"

"Looks like it's just gonna be you and me."

Barnaby could tell he was upset. "Well, hey. That sounds splendid. It's going to have to be quick, though, we do have a show to do tonight."

"Yes, I'm aware. So… got any news on our killer?"

"Diego's dead. Whoever it is isn't just after your clown troupe. They're after the whole goddamn circus."

"Jesus Christ."

"They also left a note. Recognize the handwriting?" He handed the paper to Sanguine, and the old man made a show out of squinting and bringing it closer and further away from his eyes.

"Can't say I do."

"So it's not one of our close allies, no one on this train, that much is true. I have a pretty good idea of who it is, though." Sanguine's ears perked up. "If I start spreading rumors around it might only get us in more trouble. I think I can handle it from here, just… promise me you'll be careful."

"I will, son." The two both felt that another hug was necessary. Barnaby sniffled, trying to hide back the tears that started to well up in his eyes. He then let go and opened the door, and Sanguine walked out.

"Parker," he said, calling the young man into the room. "Follow me." Barnaby led Parker through several rooms until they arrived at their destination: the room where Ellen's body was still lying limp and dead on the table. "I need to ask you to do something for me."

* * *

><p>She sure was heavy. Then again Parker wasn't too familiar with carrying a dead body. When he killed his father, he just left him there. He paused to take a break and started to relive that night. How he just cracked his head open like a walnut. How he just walked out of there. How he just packed his bags and left for good. He wondered if the cops found the body yet, if anyone who lived nearby started to notice that no one was driving the tractor or tending to the animals. Those poor animals, left all alone with no one to care for them.<p>

He picked up the body again and kept moving, and before long he made it to Ellen's car. Making sure no one saw, he opened the trunk and hauled Ellen's body inside. Clearly not one for putting bodies into cars, he had a bit of trouble at first, but managed to stuff her completely inside.

Parker rearranged Barnaby's gloves on his hands, got into the car, started it, and sped off. Before long he made it to Victor Carson's house. He parked a few houses down and noticed another car was in the driveway. "Shit," Parker hissed.

He got out of the car and stealthily headed towards the house. He didn't know why he needed to be stealthy; it was the middle of the day in a residential area. Anyone could peek their head out of their fancy curtains and see him tiptoeing to the Carson home. Parker figured he would be better off just walking like normal. He did, however, turn around several times to look at the car, making sure that the trunk didn't unexpectedly open, exposing Ellen's corpse to the world.

He finally made it and wormed his way into the bushes to peek inside the window. Victor wasn't in the living room, or the dining room, as far as Parker could tell from his line of vision. The young boy carefully slipped around the side of the house and peered inside. It became relatively clear that Victor wasn't on the main floor. _Hopefully he's taking a nap upstairs_, Parker thought. He then hurried back to the car, turned it on, and pulled into the driveway. He found the little garage remote clasped onto the overhead sun visor and pushed the button. The door slowly opened, and Parker slowly inched further and further ahead.

To his surprise, Victor was standing in the garage, working at his tool bench.

"Ellen?" Victor recognized the car, but the glare from the sun prevented him from seeing Parker in the front seat.

"Shit, shit, shit!" Parker quickly put the car in reverse and jetted out of the driveway, not even caring about the fact that he nearly ran over a 7-year-old girl walking down the sidewalk.

Victor was understandably confused, and so he started to jog after the car. Once the car was parallel to the road, he realized it wasn't Ellen driving.

Parker sped off, and Victor whipped out his phone and dialed three quick numbers. "Yes, my wife's car has just been stolen, and I think he was attempting to rob my house. The plate number is 460-PKE3, a black Ford sedan. He's currently headed onto Kensington Boulevard. Please, hurry, I didn't see my wife with him, god forbid she's tied up in the trunk or something."

Victor hung up and wiped the sweat starting to bead on his forehead. He then called Ellen, but she wasn't picking up.

* * *

><p>Barnaby was in Diego's room, packing up his belongings, when he heard a cell phone ringing. It was faint at first, but he followed the sound of it until he discovered a woman's purse hiding under Diego's bed.<p>

It wasn't Lura's. It wasn't Athena's. He scrolled down all the possible women on the train it could have belonged to, but none of them rang a bell. He reached inside and found the cell phone: VICTOR CARSON – MISSED CALL.

_This is Ellen's_, he realized. Curious and a bit confused, Barnaby raided the bag and found a large envelope neatly folded inside. "Hello, what's this?" He unfolded it to find, in big red letters, CONFIDENTIAL written across it. _When has that ever stopped me before?_ Charles opened the envelope and found a bunch of bizarre paperwork. Letters from a man named Duncan Manchester. A photograph of the man was attached. He was an elder man, in his late sixties most likely, holding flight gear and standing in front of a plane.

A copy of Duncan Manchester's birth certificate followed, and immediately after that was a copy of Duncan Manchester's death certificate. "September 23… that wasn't too long ago." Barnaby continued to sift through the stack of papers: Duncan Manchester's working papers; newspaper clippings of his obituary; his engineering degree; proof of his work in the Air Force.

"Who in the hell is Duncan Manchester? And why was Ellen carrying this with her when she came here?" He flipped through the papers and fumbled as they started to scatter to the floor. The jumbled mess appeared to make the dots connect more easily for Barnaby. He was immediately drawn to a picture of Victor, Ellen, and Duncan together at a gala. Then he found another interesting piece of paper. "Phone records between Duncan and some Marcus Buchanan… who the hell is _this_ now?!" Barnaby was about to give up, until he came across Marcus Buchanan's birth certificate, and his death certificate, and a picture of him with a woman that looked extremely familiar. "Holy shit… _Cassandra_."

* * *

><p>Athena shuffled to the door and gently tapped it with her fingertips three times. She closed her hands together and waited for a response, but then realized she probably wasn't forceful enough. She closed her fist and quietly knocked, and shortly after Julius opened the door.<p>

"Oh, hi, Athena," Julius quickly closed the door around his head so she couldn't see inside. "I was just, uh, lifting weights…"

"I know about the girl, Julius. I came to see her, if that's alright with you."

"Right. I keep forgetting you can see that kind of stuff. My bad." He opened the door and led her inside. Athena's jaw dropped when she witnessed the half-girl half-fish lying in the basin of water. She was sitting in it, so her only two limbs and the tip of the tail were sticking out. This intruder noticeably upset Cassandra, but Julius leapt to the rescue and knelt by her side, brushing her face, whispering, "It's okay, she's a friend."

"I'm at a loss for words, to be completely candid. I… I never thought Charles would actually pull it off. Can I… approach her?"

"She's a bit skittish, she's been staying with me for most of the day. You can try." Cassandra looked at him, and he looked at her, finding her hand and holding onto it tightly. "It's okay, Cassandra. This is Athena. She's a friend, and she works here with us. She won't hurt you, she just wants to say hi."

Athena slowly walked over to the other side of the basin and knelt down at her side. "Hello, Cassandra." The older woman then extended her right hand. "How do you do?" Cassandra just stared at the hand for a few moments. Julius was about to direct her as to what to do with it, but Athena stopped him. "No, Julius. She can do it on her own." Julius was a bit hurt. In just the short time he was with Cassandra he felt extremely protective over her. But Athena was right. Cassandra picked up her free hand and placed it in Athena's. Athena held it somewhat tightly, not wanting to create too firm of a grip, or else that might provoke the girl. Then she shook it up and down. The two woman exchanged grins.

Barnaby barged into the room, and Cassandra jumped, taking away both her hands from Athena and Julius. "Forgive me. Julius, a word?"

"It's alright, dear, Julius just needs to talk to Charles for a quick moment. I won't leave your side." Athena held out her hand again, and Cassandra took it more readily this time. "You have such supple hands, my darling. The things I would do to get such flawless skin as this again."

Meanwhile, at the door, Barnaby shoved the envelope in Julius' hands. "That girl can't act properly, no? She's forgotten who she used to be."

"Well yeah, but I figured that was just a side effect of the soul exchange, or something," said Julius, opening the envelope and examining its contents.

"That's what I thought. But she has amnesia. She was in a plane wreck. Now I know you're busy acclimating her before tonight, but I need you to also work on getting her to remember her story. Please. It could come in handy and could potentially save all our asses from sharing a cell block."

"Um, ok…" Julius was completely confused, but took his boss' orders. Barnaby left and closed the door behind him. "Cassandra, do you remember your real name?" The girl shook her head and watched him sit down next to her again.

"She had a very horrid past," said Athena, holding the mermaid's hand forcefully with both of hers. "I can see it."

"Well thank goodness, because I don't know what the hell all this paperwork has to do with any of it." Julius flipped through all the papers until he came to some photographs.

"This girl was in a plane crash. Fell right in the middle of the ocean, didn't it?" Athena's eyes were closed as she saw the visions sweep into her eyes, but she opened them to see Cassandra beginning to cry.

Julius picked up a photo. "Cassandra, do you know this man?" He held it out to her and a tear fell from each eye.

Shaking from the sadness, Cassandra muttered out, "mm—mu—Mark."

* * *

><p>Barnaby just finished delivering the envelope to Julius when he heard a car approaching in the distance. He looked out the window and saw Ellen Carson's black sedan speeding into the parking lot and coming to a complete halt behind the train. Barnaby sighed, hoping that Parker was just going for a joy ride and that he completed his task. But knowing the Barnaby Traveling Circus over the past few days, he knew well and good that hardly anything went according to plan.<p>

"Barnaby! Barnaby!" Parker got out of the car and sprinted towards the train.

"Relax, son, I'm right here." Parker looked like he was about to cry. "Something tells me you didn't do as I said."

"I'm sorry, I really am! Everything was going just as we expected. But… her husband was home when I got there and so I snuck around the house and I didn't see him inside but when I opened the garage he was in there and he saw me inside the car and I panicked so I drove off and I think he called the cops on me and I think the police are after me!" At this point the farm boy was practically bawling.

"What?! The cops are headed here? Why would you do something so idiotic you… you imbecile!"

"I… I've never staged a dead body before, I was nervous! I'm sorry!" Barnaby slapped the boy right across the face. Parker was dumbfounded. The flashbacks of his past raced through his mind, and as if someone pulled a trigger in his mind, he lunged at Barnaby, knocking him to the ground. He was shouting and screaming and started to punch the man repeatedly in the face. Fortunately Julius was in earshot and heard the commotion outside. He raced to the scene and flung Parker off of Barnaby.

Before any of them could say a word, sirens started to fill the air.

"Listen!" Barnaby shouted, pointing a stern finger at the boy. "Go inside, lock yourself in your room. Don't come out until I tell you to." Parker just stood there and let the tears continue to pour down his face. "I'm trying to help you here! Do you want to go to prison for grand theft auto and for being involved in the disposal of a dead body? Do as I say, now!" He didn't want to listen to Barnaby, but Parker obeyed and headed inside the train. At that point several cop cars started to surround the train and Ellen's car. "Go ahead inside, Julius. I'll handle this." Julius nodded and left, but Barnaby stopped him to say one last thing. "Thank you for helping me out during that… well, I guess you could call it a fight."

A few officers got out of their patrol cars wielding weapons. "Gentlemen, gentlemen, I think this whole thing is being blown far too out of proportion."

"Put your hands where we can see 'em!" shouted one of the cops.

"Officer, I committed no crime." Barnaby did as he was instructed, and as he did he saw a black van pull up behind the line of cop cars. When it came to a halt, Victor Carson popped out from the back seat. "Ah, Victor Carson, mind telling your police pals to let us have a little chat before anything ridiculous starts to happen?"

Victor walked over to the cops. "You're facing severe charges, Mr. Barnaby. You and anyone else involved in this circus scheme of yours. The disappearance of my son and now my wife… not to mention theft of my vehicle."

"That's what I'm trying to tell all of you," Barnaby said, sounding a bit desperate, which even caught himself off guard. "Ellen Carson was here earlier yesterday. We had a discussion regarding the whereabouts of your son, but unfortunately I had no new information to give her. I thought she had left after our meeting, but this morning I discovered her car was still here, and she had left her keys behind. So I asked one of my employees to return the car to its rightful place and explain to you that Ellen may have disappeared. But the poor lad was a bit nervous when he arrived at your place of residence, Mayor Carson. He's not had his fair share of celebrity sightings, you see?"

"That's a complete lie, Mr. Barnaby, there's no reason why Ellen would come here without me. She didn't come here yesterday, that's a load of bullshit and you know it." Victor had enough of this game. He just wanted his wife and his son back.

"I have proof. She brought two gentlemen with her, they're on the train as we speak… _Duncan Manchester and Marcus Buchanan_."

Victor's eyes widened upon hearing those names. _He knows_, he thought to himself, suddenly feeling as if he was going to soil himself. "It's alright, gentlemen, drop your weapons. Let Mr. Barnaby and I handle this." Victor followed Barnaby into the train, planning on cornering him and physically demanding to know where Ellen and Jacob were. But Barnaby surprised him by doing the same thing to him. The ringmaster pushed the mayor against the wall once they were out of sight of the cops outside.

"I know about the plane, Victor."

"What plane?"

"Your sweet wife planned on ratting you out. That's why she came here yesterday, without you. She was going to propose a trade: your son for the scoop on your little transgression. How else would I know the names of the two men you helped murder?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I have all the paperwork to prove it, courtesy of Ellen Carson. And not only that, I have an eye witness. A survivor of the crash, Marcus' mistress, I'm presuming. She's taking a bath right down the hall if you don't believe me." Victor felt embarrassed, and outraged, and a bit betrayed. Barnaby, meanwhile, was quickly thinking of a way to get everything taken care of. "Now listen to me, and listen carefully. Ellen is in the trunk of her car, dead. We have a killer on the loose. Some of our very own have fallen over the past few days. You're not the only one who's lost someone they loved, okay?" Barnaby's eyes started to water as he thought of Diego. "And I'm sure Ellen met the same fate. We found her body and we were going to make it look like she committed suicide in your garage, but ultimately that plan didn't work. I still don't know where Jacob is, but I promise you I will continue the search for him. Now, you're going to walk outside and tell those nice police officers to go home, that it was all a misunderstanding, and that the story I told out there was completely true. You're then going to drive your wife's corpse home, and do what you will with her body. A proper burial seems in order. She seemed like a very classy lady, who certainly knew how to blackmail someone. You do this, exactly as I tell you, and I won't turn you in for conspiring to assassinate three innocent people in what the headlines mistook to be an accidental plane malfunction. And I'll even make sure to bring your son home alive. Now go."

Victor was almost paralyzed, but he was quick to follow Barnaby's orders. Victor made the police go and didn't press any charges on the stolen vehicle. He drove that same vehicle home, and once he was in the privacy of his own garage, he opened the trunk to discover that Ellen's body was in fact there. He pulled her out and collapsed on the ground, crying over her corpse.

* * *

><p>Parker looked up from his bed to see Barnaby standing in the doorway. The ringmaster just stood there, staring at his own shoes, for nearly a minute. Parker was too afraid to say anything, so he just waited for Barnaby to say what he needed. And eventually he did.<p>

"Pack your things. After tonight's show, you're out for good." With that he left the boy alone.

Barnaby decided that enough was enough. He finally got Victor and Ellen off of his back. Now it was time to resolve the other major issue.

He opened the funhouse mirror closet.

Lura was sitting on the floor. No, she was slouched over on the floor, with a giant glass shard sticking out of her chest.


	5. Stockholm Girl

There she was, the love of his life. Just lying there after having committed suicide. It finally caught up to her. Admittedly Barnaby was a bit in a state of shock. He wanted to start weeping uncontrollably, but the tears weren't coming. He knelt down to touch her, but in that instant Lura sprang alive and kicked him right in the face, sending him backwards. The glass shard that she so perfectly positioned at her chest fell to the ground and she picked it up, holding it right at Barnaby's throat.

Barnaby looked up at her. Madness was in her eyes. She really was going to kill him if he didn't give her answers. "Lura, I'll tell you everything I know. Please. There's no sense in killing the only one who knows the whole story." Maintaining her death glare, she slowly peeled the sharp piece of glass away from his neck and hopped off of him.

"I don't even know what to say to you. I've been in this closet for what, a week, probably? I've had so much time to figure out what I would say, memorize a complete speech or an ultimatum. But I can't. I don't know what to say to you." Barnaby meanwhile took the opportunity to prop himself up against the wall, rubbing his neck. Lura took a seat on the floor opposite him. "Tell me everything."

"You were with us for quite some time. And you weren't reacting, you weren't obeying…"

"Maybe because I'm not a lap dog or a slave. I'm a human being, Barnaby, a woman with a child. And you took that away from me." Lura didn't want to look at him while her emotions were showing. She turned her head to the side to wipe away the wetness in her eyes.

"I know that now. All you cared about in the beginning was getting your baby back. But business was doing so well since you joined, just as I knew it would. I didn't want your time with us to end. So I… contacted Raul."

Lura's heart started racing as she heard the name of her abusive ex and baby daddy. Shocked and stunned, she glared at Barnaby. "W—what?"

A few months after Barnaby recruited Lura, Raul came barging onto the train, demanding to know where Lura was. Raul claimed had the baby and insisted on taking Lura back so they could be a family together. Barnaby tried to restrain the man but failed, and Raul stole Lura away. Barnaby hunted Raul down and shot up the place, killing him to save her. In the process, however, little baby David died as well, taking a stray bullet to the head.

Lura mourned the loss of her baby, but also felt incredibly grateful to Barnaby for saving her. She decided to stay with the circus, and wound up falling in love with Barnaby.

"That whole night was a lie? You fabricated that whole situation?"

"Yes. Sanguine had just taken a new victim a few nights before. The parents were killed so no one would come asking for their child, and we discovered that they also had a baby, about David's age. We gave Raul the baby, convincing him it was his son. Raul then took you, and I pretended to come to the rescue. Raul is certainly dead. We both know that. But the baby that died that night wasn't David."

"And you knew that after killing Raul I would start to fall for you. Like some sick case of Stockholm syndrome."

"Well, I didn't expect you to fall in love with me. That was all your doing. And I couldn't just give you your baby, or else you would leave. I had to think of a way that would put some closure to the David thing. You know how creative I get…" Barnaby snarled into a smile, trying to bring some levity to the situation.

"You're making jokes but I'm not laughing," Lura said, pointing the glass shard at him. "Okay, so now I know how you tricked me into thinking my baby is dead. So, he's alive. Where is he?"

"That much I honestly don't know, sweetheart."

"_You don't get to call me sweetheart anymore!_" she erupted, raising to her feet and slashing the glass in front of his face. She broke down suddenly, dropping her makeshift weapon and putting her head in her hands. Then she fell to her knees, and Barnaby slowly wrapped her arms around her. Lura swatted him away at first, but he gained control and held her while she wept.

"I'm so sorry, Lura. You have to forgive me. I love you more than anything in the world. You know that I love you. We love each other. Yes, we've been through quite a lot, but that's what makes us stronger. We can move past this. We can find David, and we can live a happy life together. The three of us."

Lura continued to cry and soil Barnaby's coat with her tears. "Can I have something to eat? I'm starving."

Barnaby couldn't help but chuckle. "We actually have dinner plans in a couple of hours."

* * *

><p>Sanguine twiddled his thumbs after properly placing his napkin on his lap. He felt very underdressed, wearing only a nice shirt and khakis. He was used to his red get-up and his face paint. But he couldn't wear that out in public, not at a nice restaurant like this certainly.<p>

He looked to his right and saw a family of four sitting at a booth, two mothers, a boy about 7, and a girl about 4. The girl caught him looking at them. He waved to her, and she responded by shaking her mother's arm to tell her that the man over there was staring at them. Sanguine quickly diverted his attention elsewhere and fumbled with the menu. He then realized he had looked at it about seven times and he already knew what he was planning on ordering.

Finally Barnaby walked into the restaurant. "Ah, there you are. Oh, and you brought a guest!" Sanguine's face lit up as he saw Lura walk in behind his son, wearing a sequined dress.

"Aw, happy birthday, Marty." Lura hugged the old man and he welcomed it happily. Only a handful of people addressed him by his real name anymore.

"Thanks, doll. So glad you could come out tonight…" Sanguine suddenly remembered where she had been all this time, but quickly put it aside and just focused on the girl in front of him. "You look ravishing tonight, my dear. Has _anyone_ told you that?" Sanguine side-eyed his boy.

"Barnaby and I are… working through some stuff at the moment. I'm not here for him, I'm here for you."

"Well isn't that sweet?"

"Uh, excuse me, ma'am," Barnaby said, grazing the hostess' arm. "We're actually going to need a table for four tonight."

"Four? What _four_?" Sanguine felt insulted that Barnaby was inviting someone else unannounced.

Then she entered the restaurant. "Well, if it isn't the old man's birthday," said Athena, waltzing in like a queen.

"You invited your mother?" Sanguine asked Barnaby, a bit upset at this evening's surprising turn of events.

"Yes, I did. And you will _both_ be on your best behavior, are we clear?"

"Crystal," replied Sanguine, tapping Charles on the cheek a few times. The hostess conjoined two smaller tables together so they could all be seated. Sanguine very appropriately opened Lura's seat for her, and he sat beside her. "I figured you wouldn't want to be sitting next to him," he whispered into her ear.

"I appreciate that tremendously," she whispered back, rubbing his hand. She truly did care so much for Sanguine; he was the closest thing she ever had to a father figure. Besides the fact that she was practically his daughter-in-law, he was always very kind to her and always treated her with utmost respect. Barnaby saw the two whispering away and rolled his eyes while pulling open his mother's chair.

"Thank you, my sweet boy. I must say, Martin, you've fucked up quite a few times in your life. But the best thing you ever did was help me make Charles." All four of them appreciated the sweet tender moment of those few seconds. After that it all started to go downhill, and fast.

"You look ghastly tonight, Athena. Did you borrow my face paint?" Sanguine licked his bottom lip as he handed Lura her menu.

"Just be aware that I'm not here to celebrate your birthday, I'm here to celebrate how young I am. Knowing you've gone on to see 70 makes me revel in my youth, even if it is just a five-year difference. I've never felt more alive!" Some of the other guests at the restaurant turned their heads as Athena shouted.

"Please don't cause a scene, Athena. You'll frighten the children with your hideous… well, everything." He took a sip of his water as a means of congratulating himself on that. "Be honest, why did you come tonight?"

"Barnaby didn't want to leave me alone on the train while you two were out."

"I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if that killer got to any one of you three," Barnaby said sweetly. "You all mean the world to me, and if my mother died while I was out feasting with my father—"

"Sounds like a win-win to me!" exclaimed Sanguine.

"Martin," Athena said, "I hear the veal is exquisite. Perhaps you'll choke on it."

"I'll give you something to choke on, you hag."

"Hey now!" Lura said, feeling very uncomfortable in this situation. She couldn't remember the last time that she was in the same room with just Barnaby and his parents. The circus life was much different; Athena and Sanguine lived on entire opposite ends of the train, and they made sure to never cross each other's paths. "Let's not get too hasty and say anything we might regret later on." She glared at Barnaby while she said that, and she noticed him gulp.

"Speaking of saying things we won't regret, I have a bit of an announcement. I know this is your night, dad, but while I have you all here, I'd like to get something off my chest." He cleared his throat. "Lura, I am madly in love with you. And we've been through so much together, the ups and the downs, and we're still here together right now. Forget how we met. Forget all the things that happened in the past. I want to think about the future, and I want you to be a part of it for the rest of my life."

"Barnaby, please don't do this," growled Lura from behind clenched teeth.

"Lura, will you marry me?" Athena's face lit up and she looked at the girl sitting across from her, anxiously awaiting her response.

She didn't have to wait too long for one, however. "Absolutely not," Lura stated blatantly. Athena reeled back in shock. Sanguine did nothing but grin.

"Oh, but Lura, my darling, I thought you and Barnaby were madly in love!" Athena hollered, outraged at what was happening before her.

"That's where you're wrong, Athena. I don't love Barnaby. I don't think I ever loved him. If anything I just liked his thick dick. I don't, never have, and never will love you, Charles."

Athena covered her mouth with her hands, still stuck on the part about Barnaby's genitals. Barnaby looked at her disapprovingly. He was almost confident that she would say no. Unlike his mother, he wasn't surprised in the least.

"Excuse me, I think I just need to go back to the train." Lura plopped her napkin down on her plate and scooted out of her chair.

"Lura, my dear. I'll walk you. It's too dangerous out there." Sanguine hurriedly followed after her and extended his elbow for her to loop her arm through.

"Alright, mother. Let's go. I ruined tonight."

"So what? I really wanted to try that veal!"

"Let's _go_, mother. We have a show to prepare for anyway. Dinner was a mistake." He helped Athena out of her chair and placed a ten-dollar bill on the table. Then he realized that they never even got a waiter or waitress, and quickly jogged back to stuff the money back into his pocket.

* * *

><p>The show was minutes from beginning. Barnaby was getting more and more nervous with every passing second. Never before had his life been in shambles like this. Ever since he was a young boy, he always made sure that everything was in order. Now almost nothing was. Lura hated him. She rejected his marriage proposal. That was it. She truly didn't love him at all, and probably never will. His performers were dropping like flies, literally. He wasn't even sure their new mermaid reveal would be enough to make up for the loss in Sanguine's clown troupe and his sword swallowing act. And he still had that pesky Ruuxa to pay, which to be completely honest he didn't want to do, but he was sure she would be back soon to collect her salary.<p>

The lights dimmed inside the tent: his cue. Barnaby tiptoed through the dark into the center ring, and the spotlight shown on him. He adjusted the microphone on his lapel and began to announce the show.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls. Presenting… the Barnaby Traveling Circus!" The crowd applauded and the kids hollered with excitement. "I am your host and ringmaster, Charles Barnaby. And guess what, everyone? You all came on a very good night. Do you know why?" He looked around the ring and saw all the youngsters' faces light up with curiosity. "The Barnaby Traveling Circus has acquired a new guest. She's very special, you see. She's not… entirely human, you might say. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the only living organism known to exist that is half man, half fish… Cassandra!"

The spotlight shifted to the back of the ring, and Julius ran onto it. Behind him was a large pillar-shaped cylinder cloaked in a curtain. Julius made a show out of presenting the cylinder with his arms, and then in a flash he removed the curtain, exposing the cylindrical tank underneath. It was filled about halfway with water, and Cassandra bobbed up and down inside.

The audience went crazy. Parents and the more rational, older kids had facial expressions that were a mix of horrified and stunned. Half of the younger children yelled with excitement, mostly the girls that knew all the commercial mermaids on TV, and the other half screamed of fear. A couple of the more conservative parents even shielded their kids' eyes, not wanting them to witness the natural abomination that they were being shown.

All of these reactions got to Cassandra. She had never been in a room with more than three people since her revival. And now here she was, smack dab in the middle of a circus ring, surrounded by dozens and dozens of people. Every one of them was focused on her. The spotlight reflected oddly on the glass tank, and it started to hurt her eyes, not to mention the fact that it was very hot in there. She spun around in the already-cramped cylindrical tank and realized that everyone was either horrified or at least somewhat concerned at the sight in front of them. She started to panic, but she didn't know what exactly to do. She could barely even flop her arms or kick her tail.

Then Julius looked at her, and it was as if everyone else disappeared. "Julius," she whispered. "Get mmm—me o—out!"

Julius saw the terror in her face and knew she wasn't comfortable in this situation. But instead of immediately reacting, he just stood there and stared at her. To be honest he didn't entirely know what to do. He completely understood that Cassandra wasn't entirely ready for this, but at the same time he couldn't bail and let the show down. She pressed her hand against the glass, hoping he would put his on the other side to mirror hers. But he didn't. "Julius," she murmured, the anxiety more noticeable in her inflection. "Julius!" Now she was screaming, and both her hands were banging against the glass.

The audience didn't quite know how to react either. The more mature half of them knew that something was going wrong, while the younger half just sat and watched, totally perplexed.

"_Julius_!" she hollered, worrying that the tank was somehow soundproof. She flailed her tail around so it too began to thump hard against the glass. At this point the parents could tell that the creature was unsettled and potentially violent, and some of them stood up and started to throw popcorn and other treats at Julius' head.

"Get her out of here!" one of them yelled at the lion tamer.

"She's going to break the glass!" another shouted.

"This is inhumane!"

"Someone call PETA!"

"Do something, you asshole!" said a more colorful patron in the crowd.

But Julius, just stood there, stuck in some bizarre trance. Fortunately Barnaby was right outside the tent, and the minute he heard the audience booing and shouting profanities, he ran inside to assess the issue.

He grabbed a hold of his lion tamer and shook him. "Julius! What are you doing?"

"I—I can't, Barnaby." And like that, he ran out of the tent. Barnaby rubbed his temples before turning on his microphone and getting the crowd to settle down.

"I apologize, ladies and gentlemen. We had a bit of technical difficulties with our animal training team earlier today. Give it up for Cassandra, everyone!" Only a couple of kids clapped in response to that. Barnaby turned the mic off and walked up to the glass. "Are you alright, dear?" he asked the mermaid. She was still heavily breathing, but managed to nod her head. "Let's get you out of here, okay?" Cassandra nodded again, and Barnaby wheeled the tank out of the tent. The second they got out of there, she took a deep sigh, relieved that the nightmare was over.

* * *

><p>Parker finished stuffing the rest of his clothes in the bag that he brought with him. He leaned most of his body weight against the top of the suitcase so he could zip it up all the way. "Ah!" he winced, feeling a sharp pinch on his finger; he caught the skin of his forefinger in the zipper. Biting on it to ease the pain, Parker slowly walked over to the sink to run it under some cold water. Once the throbbing subsided, he continued to let the water flow, put his two hands beneath the faucet, and cupped a large amount of water to his face. The water was extremely cold, and it perked him right up. With his eyes still closed, he reached out and felt around for a towel to dry off with.<p>

He looked at himself in the small mirror above the sink. "This is it. One last show. One last hurrah." He turned off the light and headed to the tent to see the last few minutes of the show.

* * *

><p>"Ladies and gentlemen, it is a tradition in our company to have the clowns perform for one last great show," said Barnaby, more optimistic than he ever was before. He caught the eye of Parker as he snuck into the tent and leaned against the back of it. Barnaby gave him a brief smile, assuring him it was okay for him to stay for this. "It is with great honor that I present to you, the one… the only… Sanguine the Clown!"<p>

The drum roll music started to play, and the spotlight shown down on the entrance to the tent, but no one came through. Barnaby immediately started to sweat. "I present to you," he restated, "Sanguine the Clown!" Still nothing. Barnaby turned away from the entrance and stared back at the audience. So many disappointed faces in the crowd.

Then, just like that, Sanguine emerged. Only it wasn't from the entrance.

His appearance made Barnaby jump back and land on the ground. The kids started to scream, parents scrambled to get their children.

Someone had rigged a noose to hang from the tightrope, and Sanguine was caught inside it. As if he was responding to his cue, either he or someone else had him plummet down towards the ground so he could be hanged. When his body stopped falling, he was mere inches from Barnaby's face.

Sanguine was still seemingly alive, but he was struggling and squirming like a fish out of water, clinging onto the last strips of life that remained inside of him. The audience went into chaos mode, and everyone tried to get out, fearing for the kids' and their own lives.

Fortunately, Parker came to the rescue. From his vantage point, he saw the body begin to fall and quickly reacted by leaving the circus tent. He pulled a torch out of the ground and brought it back inside with him. Careful not to burn any of the young boys and girls scrambling around, Parker made his way towards the middle of the tent and set the rope that Sanguine dangled from on fire. In a mere few seconds the rope singed to nothing and it snapped. Sanguine fell the few inches to the ground, and Barnaby quickly shuffled over to loosen the rope from his father's neck.

While Parker and some of the other circus performers helped ease the crowd out of the tent in an orderly fashion, Barnaby crouched over his father. Sanguine's breathing was very faint, but it was there. There was nothing Barnaby felt like doing other than hugging his father and not letting go. And so that's exactly what he did.


	6. Halt

The next twelve hours seemed like an absolute blur. Someone alerted the authorities, no one knew who it was exactly, but it was most likely a couple of the parents that were in the audience. A few of them left the show that night threatening to sue the circus for any therapy that their children might need after what they witnessed. Barnaby wasn't even listening. He hugged his father for what seemed like hours.

Then the police arrived and asked Barnaby to let go of the man. After some paramedics tended to his injuries, the investigators took him aside for questioning. The entire circus arena was roped off as a crime scene. The few remaining stragglers from the crowd were forced to leave the area, as an investigation was about to take place.

"I don't understand all the hullaballoo over this," said Barnaby to one of the officers. "Is this all really necessary? Someone attempted to kill my father, why is this being treated like a huge investigation?"

"Because," the man replied, "it is one." Barnaby gave him a puzzled look. Just then he heard someone else calling his name.

"Charles Barnaby, yes? Hi, I'm Detective Sloane, I'll be leading this investigation." Barnaby didn't even accept the man's extended hand.

"Detective Sloane, what is the meaning of all this?"

"Your father gets hanged from a thirty-foot-tall tightrope inside your own circus tent, and you ask what the meaning of this is? Don't you want us to help you find the person or persons responsible for this?"

"Frankly, I don't, Detective Sloane. Clearly this town isn't suitable for us, which is why we need to be on our way. We have a show in the city in a couple of days, we need to leave in a few hours if we are to stay on schedule."

"I'm afraid that's not possible, Mr. Barnaby. This entire area is under our watch and investigation until our guy is found. I'm afraid I have to halt your schedule. That train is not leaving until we've finished our search. And yes, we have the necessary warrants."

Barnaby was still confused as to how this turned into such a massive operation in such a brief time. Then the answer came to him in the form of a black van pulling up in the parking lot. "Of course," he murmured.

Victor stepped out of the vehicle and walked over to Barnaby and Detective Sloane. "Glad this case is going to be put to rest, huh, Barnaby?" Victor gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Barnaby quickly imagined giving Victor a reassuring smack on the back of the head. "Maybe the man responsible for the attempted murder of Sanguine is also the man responsible for the other murders taken place her, and perhaps even the disappearance of my son Jacob."

"That's what I need to address next, Mr. Barnaby," said Detective Sloane. "Victor Carson has informed us earlier today that you've been experiencing a bit of a… killing spree on your hands? Mind if I ask you a few questions about that?" Sloane took a pad out of his jacket pocket and flipped to a fresh, clean page.

_He knows they're going to find Jacob when they search the train_, thought Barnaby. _Victor did this on purpose, that little bitch._ "Certainly, Detective."

* * *

><p>Detective Sloane informed Barnaby that the individual who attacked Sanguine was wearing a gas mask that was painted bright yellow, and a crown that appeared to be made of feathers. Sanguine nicknamed him 'The Birdman' for his unique guise. The mask and the feather crown were exactly what they were searching the train for. If the killer was in fact a member of the circus, which is very likely as this individual had access to the tent before the show started in order to rig Sanguine's noose, then these items would certainly help the investigative team track him down.<p>

The ringmaster had never been so shaken in his life. But he was completely honest in his answers. He just wanted this whole thing behind him for good. The minute Barnaby left the interrogation, he spotted Lura sitting outside on the hay bales with Parker. He sighed before calling the farm boy's name.

"Oh, shit," murmured the young man. "I'm supposed to be out of here!" Parker got up and started to leave, but Barnaby held up his hand to pause him.

"Where are you going?" the ringmaster asked.

"I figured it's time I leave, just like you asked."

"Parker, you saved my father's life tonight. You thought light on your feet, you did something that no one else in a crowded room of people thought to do. Do you realize how truly indebted I am to you?" He placed his hands on Parker's shoulders. "You're not going anywhere. I forgive you for your little screw up earlier today. Saving Sanguine made up for that tenfold." Barnaby extended his hand, and Parker eagerly shook it. "Welcome back, boy." Barnaby stared at Lura, who was busy focusing on the animals during that whole exchange. When he realized she wasn't going to return the look, he went back to the train.

"Ouch, that was cold," said Parker, sitting back down next to Lura. "Something happen between you two?"

"You don't even know the half of it," she said, rubbing her eyes.

"I told you my story, Lura. Come on, I thought we were friends." He placed his hand on her knee. She glanced at his hand, not sure how to respond.

Carefully she picked his hand up and took it off of her. "We are friends, Parker. No more, no less." The farm boy blushed and looked at his feet while he waited for the awkwardness to subside. "Although… I might have an idea…"

* * *

><p>Barnaby was lying on his front with his face shoved into his pillow. He didn't want to get up. He didn't want to ever get up. <em>Maybe if I just lay here forever, everyone else will go away and leave me alone. No one wants me anyway. I've got a killer taking down my performers. I've got a psycho mayor looking to tarnish my business and incarcerate my father. I've got the love of my life wielding sharp objects every time I confront her. Who cares about me? No one. Not a single person.<em>

Then, as if someone was responding to his musings, Athena quietly tapped on the door. "Charles, are you alright?"

"Not one bit, mother." Kicking into parent mode, Athena opened the door and sat down on the edge of the bed. Rubbing his back just as she did when he was a young boy, she asked calmly, "Why are you so upset, Barnaby?"

"Because everyone I know hates me. My life is being torn into a million pieces before my very eyes." He finally picked his head off of the pillow so she could audibly hear him. "What did I do to deserve this?"

"Well, you started an entire circus from the ground up just to give your father an outlet for his heinous crimes. You do horrible things to people to serve either you or him. Think about Lura. You kidnapped her baby, and then staged his death, just to keep her a part of this show. How sick is that, Charles?"

He sat up now. "Why did you tell her about her baby? We were so happy together. You know what they say, ignorance is bliss."

"She had every right to know, Charles. You're a monster. How could you sleep at night knowing you did that to her? Now I know you love her, it's plain to see. But to go to such lengths just to keep her in your bed at night? That's downright cruel. No wonder someone's trying to kill you all." He gave her a scowl. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm horrified to even be sitting right next to you. My sweet boy, the child I loved through it all. Now that I know the truth about Lura, it pains me to look into your eyes, the same eyes that cried when you fell off the seesaw when you were six." Athena was practically blubbering at this point. "I don't think I can keep up with this charade anymore, Charles. It's gone on long enough. I stuck around all these years to protect you, to make sure you weren't doing anything heinous, and to keep your asshole of a father in line. But enough is enough. I'm about to go mad!"

"Don't rat us out to the police, mother!" Barnaby suddenly got frightened and held onto her arm. She used her free hand to smack his tight grip away.

"No. As much as I want to see your father rot in a prison cell for the few years he has left, I would never want to see you suffer the same fate. But I can't keep up with this, all of this. The lies, the crimes, the abuse, the torment." She held his hands in hers and looked into those big brown eyes. "I'm done." Then she let go, got up, and left.

_Who cares about me?_ Barnaby asked himself. _No one. Not a single person. Not even my own mother. _He grabbed his pillow and started to cry into it.

* * *

><p>Cassandra perked up as she heard a loud whistle crescendo near her head. She thought for a second that the train was moving, but when she woke up, she realized that they were still stopped, in the same place they've been in. She looked around and noticed that the whistle came from a teakettle, which Julius took off the stove and used to pour her a cup of tea. Cassandra accepted the mug and carefully took a sip.<p>

"Th—thank you."

Julius didn't reply, but instead just sat down next to her and pet her scaly tail. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know w—what happened," she answered, setting the cup on the table beside her. "I thought I could do it. But it was so…"

"Surreal?" he suggested. She nodded, accepting that as the word she couldn't think of.

"Aren't we supposed to be moving? I thought there was another sh—show somewhere else."

"Not at the moment. The authorities halted our train. There's an investigation going on. You missed what happened after your part in the show last night. Someone tried to kill one of our clowns in the middle of the show. And apparently they've killed a few others too."

Cassandra didn't like the sound of any of that. "I don't feel… safe here." She grabbed her tea and took a bigger gulp this time. "I miss my home," she stated, clear as a bell, no stuttering or slurring. Julius wondered if she'd been rehearsing that line this whole time. "I miss Marcus."

"Cassandra, I thought we went over this. Marcus died, in that plane crash you were in." He did nothing differently, but Cassandra noticed that his petting got more sensual, more intimate. "I'm sure everyone else assumes you're dead. Do you really want to go back to that?"

She thought about it, and placed her hand on top of his, letting him glide her up and down her tail. "I feel like I'm home when I'm with you." She sat up a bit so she was just inches from his face. "Take me home, Julius." Then she leaned in for a kiss. Julius was about to go for it, but at the very last second, he pulled away. Cassandra was extremely hurt. "I thought you wanted that too," she said, diverting her eyes to anywhere else in the room but his face.

"Believe me, I do, it's just…"

"The fact that I'm part fish?" Julius didn't respond. "I get it. Sorry I wasted your time." She went back to her tea, but the lion tamer snatched the mug out of her hands and planted a big kiss on her. Cassandra was taken aback, but gradually got into it and accepted it.

"The fact that you're part fish isn't what's important," he said once he broke free from the kiss. "What is important is that you trust me, that you care about me just as much as I care about you." She flashed him a smile. "I would take you out to dinner, but unfortunately we're on lockdown," he said, suddenly killing the mood. He jogged over to the cupboard and pulled out a box of crackers. "Will this do?" Cassandra giggled and took the box from him, and they spent the night telling stories and sharing crackers.

* * *

><p>Victor sat on the curb of the parking lot, flipping through his wallet. He found a picture of him and Ellen from their tenth wedding anniversary. He giggled as he remembered that was the night when Uncle Ollie got so drunk he fell right into the cake. Then as the memory faded, he tore the picture in half and angrily shoved it back in his wallet.<p>

After doing that he noticed someone approaching the circus train. He rose to his feet and paced over to the woman. "Excuse me, you can't step foot on this property. There's an investigation going on. Can't you see the yellow tape?"

"That's none of my concern," said Ruuxa, shoving her bare hands in her robe to deflect them from the cold wind. "I need to see Charles Barnaby."

"Are you an employee of this circus?" Victor asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I'm here to collect my pay. Would you mind getting him for me? I've been waiting far too long for this, and I get very upset when someone makes me wait." Victor looked around for an officer to handle the situation, but while he did that, Ruuxa eyed him from head to toe. She felt a tingle in her extremities as she remembered holding Ellen's cold, dead hand in hers. "You're Victor Carson. I'm so sorry for your loss." He snapped his head to face her so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash.

"Wait right here. Don't move."

A few moments later, Victor asked a cop to take him into the train to speak to Barnaby. The cop complied and took him to the ringmaster's office. Barnaby was sitting there, half naked, somewhat asleep on top of his desk.

"Barnaby!" he shouted, waking him up. "Look out your window."

He did as he was told and saw Ruuxa standing there. _Keep track of your staff_, he repeated in his head. It was as if the mere sight of her caused that line to replay over and over again.

Victor stood next to him and looked at her with him. "Do you know her?"

"Yes," Barnaby replied, thinking up a quick lie to go with the story he originally told Victor. "I'm almost confident she's the one who killed your wife. She's the Birdman."

* * *

><p>"It all makes sense," said Barnaby as he and Victor sped down the length of the train to get to Detective Sloane. "The gas mask, it's meant to represent the industries that are destroying her nature preserves. The bird feathers are obviously connected to nature, just like she is. I've had this suspicion all along, but now it all finally makes sense."<p>

"I'm just glad we're finally getting to the bottom of this," said Victor, trying to keep with Barnaby, who was practically sprinting. "Hey," the mayor said, grabbing the other man by the shoulder and caused him to stop. "I'm sorry for all the trouble this has caused you. Sincerely, I am. I was just looking for answers. Now that they're starting to come together, I can finally appreciate all you've done to help me out."

Barnaby almost felt like hugging the man. That was the first nice thing anyone had said to him in days. "Why the investigation, Victor? Why bring the authorities into this mess? Didn't the whole plane scheme scare you away?"

"I still wanted my son back, Barnaby. I knew you were just telling me you would look for Jacob just to get me out of your hair. Getting an investigative team behind me was the only way to get it done right." Barnaby shook his head, as if to say he understood. "You're not going to keep holding that over my head, though, are you?"

The fact that Victor was finally seeking a truce made Barnaby's cold heart melt. "No. But I'll never forget it. Don't think you can continue to cross me in the future, or I will use it against you." They both chuckled.

"I doubt we'll meet again, Mr. Barnaby. Once this Birdman is finally taken into custody, we'll let your circus people go on to your next stop, and that will be the end of your stay in our lovely town."

"It's almost sad that we're saying farewell, Mr. Carson." They exchanged a proper handshake before continuing the walk to Sloane's area. But when they got there, they noticed he was already talking to someone else: Athena.

"Gentlemen, is there something I can help you with?" asked Sloane.

"Yes, Detective. We think we've found the killer," said Victor enthusiastically.

"I have, too. You're looking at her." Barnaby and Victor both focused on the elderly psychic sitting in front of them.

"I don't get it," said Barnaby.

Detective Sloane got up and gathered his papers. "We found the gas mask and the feather crown in her possession. And she revealed exactly how she killed Jack Marshall, Diego Sanchez, and Ellen Carson, along with her clear motive to kill your father, Martin, her ex-husband."

"So that's it, then?" asked Barnaby, not taking his eyes off his mother. "What's going to happen to her?"

"We're going to bring her down to the station, get her full statement, arrest her, and then a trial will determine her sentence." Athena wasn't even looking at her son, but she knew his gaze was directly on her. Victor's too, apparently.

_No_, Barnaby thought. _She's lying to him. She's covering up for the killer. And she knows who it is. She's fucking psychic. She knew all along. She wanted the Birdman to kill off Sanguine, and so she never said anything to anyone about it. Then she found the mask and the crown on the train and pretended they were hers. My mother isn't capable of murder. She wouldn't dare. This is all an act._

Barnaby didn't blink once as he watched a police officer handcuff Athena and walk her into one of the squad cars.

"I guess now we wait to hear about Jacob," said Victor. Barnaby didn't answer. He was stuck in thought about what just happened. "Goodbye, Charles." Victor waited for a response, but he wasn't getting one. He walked over to his van and drove home.

"Congratulations, Mr. Barnaby," said Detective Sloane as he and his team started to pack up. "You are officially un-halted. Go forth and knock 'em dead wherever you're performing next. Not literally, of course." The detective patted the ringmaster on the back, and within a half hour they were all gone.

* * *

><p>Victor got home and stared at the fireplace in the living room. He knew what had to be done. <em>Finally time to put that bitch where she belongs<em>, he thought. After removing all the logs from inside, he used a small spade to scoop up all the ashes and collected them in a bowl. Then he carried it upstairs and into his room.

"Goodbye, Ellen. Good fucking riddance." He brought the bowl into the bathroom, dumped its contents into the toilet, and confidently flushed it all down. It felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

The next thing he did was take the family portrait off the mantle, the one of the three of them, the one that cost thousands of dollars to hire a professional artist to paint, and smash it on the ground. Once it was free of its frame, Victor ripped Ellen out of the canvas, so only he and Jacob remained.

He ended the night with a glass of wine watching painted Ellen burn in the fire. It was almost as enjoyable as watching the actual Ellen burn to a crisp just hours before.

* * *

><p>Barnaby was about to call it a night when he noticed Ruuxa still standing in the parking lot. "Why are you still here, Ruuxa?"<p>

"Why do you think, Mr. Barnaby? You owe me a large sum of money, do you not?"

"And you think I'm just going to give it to you?"

Ruuxa gave him a deadly stare. "I fulfilled my part of the agreement. I did what you asked me to do. I transferred the life from one individual to another, one that wasn't even wholly human. Now you pay me, or else."

"Or else what? You're going to kill my staff? Oh wait, you already did that!" In a bout of rage he punched the woman right in the cheek. "Jumpin' Jack!" He punched her again, this time causing her to fall to the floor. "Diego!" Ruuxa felt wetness running down her mouth and chin. Her nose was severely broken and blood was pouring out like a fountain. "And you almost killed my father!" He kicked her right in the stomach after that one. Once she caught her breath, she staggered to her feet and ran. She didn't know where she was running to, but she just ran away from the Barnaby Traveling Circus.

Barnaby considered this night overall a success. His father didn't die, even though there was an attempt on his life. Victor was off his back, seemingly for good. And Ruuxa, the Birdman, was probably bleeding to death in an alley somewhere. _So what if Athena's going to jail for a crime she didn't commit? The pros definitely outweigh the cons tonight._ For the first time in days, Barnaby grinned from ear to ear as he stepped into his bedroom.

That's where he found Lura riding Parker in his bed.

Lura locked eyes with him, and instead of jumping off the bed and covering herself out of shame like he expected, she just continued to stare at him while taking Parker inside her.

"What's the matter, Barnaby?" she asked, grabbing Parker's hands and forcing them to grope her breasts. "You don't care to join us, do you?"

Parker meanwhile was nearly about to shit the bed in fear. Lura talked him into this plan to get back at Barnaby, but all he worried about was having Barnaby rip his dick off or something in retaliation. He could see the fire igniting in the ringmaster's eyes.

Barnaby then began to stomp forcefully towards the bed, and this scared Lura enough to hop off of Parker's lap and crawl onto the other side of the bed. Barnaby grabbed the nude farm boy by the arm and flung him against the wall, pinning him there by his throat. Parker was shaking, not sure what exactly Barnaby planned on doing to him first.

In an unexpected twist, Barnaby crashed his lips into Parker's. Lura watched from the other side of the bed in utter shock. "Yes," Barnaby said, releasing himself from the kiss. "I do care to join you." He tore off his coat and shirt, tossed the boy down on the bed, and guided Lura to join in.


	7. The Beast Within

Barnaby woke up rather refreshed. Lura and Parker's bare bodies were draped over him. It took him a few seconds to fully remember what had happened the night before. Wanting to break free of the net of limbs surrounding him, he carefully removed Lura's arm, then Parker's leg, and then Lura's leg, until he managed to slip out from under them without disturbing either one. He found a pair of underwear on the floor but quickly realized they were Parker's. Once he spotted his own he put them on and left the room quietly, and then tiptoed back to his office to get ready for the day.

As he straightened his tie he glanced over at his bookshelf. He didn't know what exactly caused him to do that, but he did. Half of those books hadn't been touched in almost a decade. Charles Barnaby was a very busy man. He didn't have time to read. Hell, Diego probably read at least ten of them _to_ Barnaby. The ringmaster skimmed through the titles until he came across Dante Alighieri's _Inferno_. "Oh my, I used to love reading this as a young boy." He flipped to the first canto and without taking his eyes off the page, sat down on the bed and started to read. His fingers caressed the yellowing pages and traced along the drawings that accompanied the passages. Then he got to his favorite part, as three animals approach Dante in the woods. Barnaby couldn't help but smile. That triumvirate always intrigued him, now even more so.

* * *

><p>"What are you doing?" asked Cassandra as she settled into her basin full of water. Julius was frantically running around the room, collecting all sorts of things.<p>

"I'm packing up. I can't stand to see you like this, Cassandra. You're clearly not enjoying yourself at all. And I won't let you be treated like another animal in this circus. You're human, and that means you deserved to at least be treated like one."

Cassandra got a bit concerned and rushed over to the edge of the tub, wrapping her fingers tensely around the rim. "So then why are you packing?"

"To run away, with you, of course. I'm taking you out of here." Cassandra's face lit up, elated to hear him say that.

"Julius, I… I don't know what to say. Yes, obviously, I'd love to run away with you. Live happily ever after." He grinned and then resumed picking apart the room to find his belongings that were absolutely necessary. "But what about the circus? What about Barnaby? Are you going to tell him?"

He stopped in his tracks, realizing he didn't fully think this through. He loved working at this circus, and he loved having Barnaby as his boss. Not only as a boss, but as a friend, a true companion, the only person who ever saw Julius for what he was capable of. "It doesn't matter anymore, Cassandra. I love you. And I won't stand by if the best Barnaby can provide for you is a cheap plastic bin filled with scummy water."

"It's scummy because I've been laying in it for days, silly. You have to change it. Haven't you ever owned a goldfish before?"

"Can't say I have," he chuckled. "Fish were never really my thing." He crouched down to be at her side, pressing his lips to her soft hands. "But you've certainly piqued my interest in them." She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him in for a kiss.

"Okay," she said, breaking away. "I'll go with you. As long as you're sure this is what you want. Don't let me get in the way of your dream job."

Suddenly Barnaby barged in, and Julius quickly stood up to address his boss. "I have a favor to ask you," the ringmaster said.

"Be right back," said Julius to Cassandra before following Barnaby out the door. "What do you need?"

"I've been struck with a sudden burst of inspiration this morning. I want to create another hybrid."

Julius looked dumbfounded. "What do you mean, _another_?"

"You know, like your little friend in there. An amalgamation of various creatures."

"She's not a creature. She's still human. She was somebody before we did that to her. You made me aware of that, remember?" Barnaby sighed as he heard Julius go on. "You know she's starting to remember that Marcus fellow? How do you think that makes me feel?"

"Julius, enough! I'm sorry I called her a creature. But the only way we can get people coming back to this circus is if we absolutely stun them. No doubt the press will be all over our ass after that stunt last night. So we need to boost our image. Make something no one has ever seen before. A mermaid is one thing, but that's been faked over so many times in the past. And everyone knows they're not real. What we need is a unique beast. Something no one has ever even imagined."

"Okay, so what are we making?" asked Julius.

"A chimaera, but not the typical lion-goat-snake hybrid. Instead it will be made up of a lion, a leopard, and a wolf." Barnaby looked extremely optimistic, hoping Julius would jump right on board with his idea. But Julius laughed at him instead.

"How the fuck did you come up with that idea, dumbass?"

"Does it matter?" Barnaby grunted, nudging Julius in the stomach to make him stop mocking him. "Now, here's where I need your help."

"I'm listening," Julius replied, calming down from his burst of laughter.

"We already have a lion, yes? What we don't have are the leopard and the wolf." Julius wasn't catching on like Barnaby hoped. "Where are we going to get these beasts on such short notice in New York?" He still wasn't catching on. "The Bronx Zoo, Julius." The lion tamer's face dropped immediately upon hearing the name of his former place of employment.

"You're not going to ask me to do what I'm thinking, are you?" He almost sounded fearful.

"It's for the good of the circus, Julius. Take this," Barnaby said, handing him a twenty-dollar bill. "I've arranged for a taxi to take you to the nearest station. Buy a ticket, head to the Bronx. You should know what to do after that. I've arranged for a friend to meet you at midnight. When you've done it, meet him with the animals and he'll take you to us. We should be in the city at that point. Are we clear?" Julius almost felt like crying. Returning _there_, after all this time. "Are we clear?"

* * *

><p>Athena hated her old wrinkled hands. She thought back to when she met the mermaid—<em>oh fiddlesticks, what on earth did they name her?<em>—Cassandra. She had such soft hands, just like Athena did when she was her age. Now her hands were wrinkled. Eroded. The veins popped up like blue rivers running over a rugged canvas. Her right pinky twitched every now and then. She never knew why. It stared around her fiftieth birthday. And every day since, it twitched unexpectedly, almost all the time.

"Dwyer!" hollered a man from down the hall. His voice echoed and boomed as it traveled down through the barred cells. She hopped up and ran over to stick her head out.

"Yes, that's me. What's wrong?" The man approached her and glared at her. "Is it time for my trial, officer?"

"On the contrary, ma'am." He grabbed onto his key ring, flipped to the correct one, and unlocked her cell. "You made bail. Your son is here to pick you up."

"Charles?" Athena was stunned that Barnaby came all this way to make bail for her, to free her from what could have been the remainder of her life in prison for crimes she didn't commit.

Except Barnaby wasn't standing there at the end of the hallway, but rather Victor Carson. "Hello, Athena," he greeted, followed by a warm smile. "Ready to go home?" Athena didn't really know what was going on, but she knew one thing: Victor was fully aware that she was not the killer.

"Yes," she uttered quietly. "Take me home."

"So, are you going to talk?" Victor asked, moments later when they were in the car and leaving the police station.

"About what, Mr. Carson?" Athena kept a level head and stared right on the road ahead of them, not even peeking at the man behind the wheel.

"I know you're psychic, Athena. And I know someone of your age and physique could not have committed all of those murders. No offense."

"None taken."

"But I'm right, right? You're not the Birdman. But you know who it is, and you were just covering for them. Now tell me: who is the Birdman? Who took my son?"

At that moment she turned her head to look directly at him. "Oh, how foolish you sound right now, Mr. Carson." He looked at her briefly, not keeping his eyes off the road for too long. "You're asking two completely different questions."

* * *

><p>Julius arrived in the city a few hours later. He stopped to grab a bite to eat at a local deli, and at five o'clock he made his way to the zoo. It was just about to close, and he needed to move while no one was there, especially any of his former co-workers.<p>

He snuck around to the employee entrance, a neat little alcove that hardly anyone knew about. The surrounding bushes made for perfect camouflage as he waited for the right moment to strike. It was nearing six, which meant most of the zookeepers were going to start leaving. They began to file out of the door, and he watched and waited from just a few feet away. Most of them left in packs, either in groups of two or three. That wouldn't work; otherwise he would have to take them all down. When it was about 6:15, the last of the employees made his exit. _Ugh__. Melvin_, Julius thought, disgusting himself at the sight of his old colleague. _I wonder if he still sniffs his fingers after feeding the elephants._

Melvin locked the door behind him and started to walk away, until he met his demise by means of a poisoned dart aimed right at the jugular. _That was easier than I expected. _Julius emerged from the bushes, found Melvin's ID pass and keys, made his way through the employee door, and dragged Melvin's body inside with him.

"Hey, Melvin, did you forget something?" asked a familiar voice from behind. _Oh shit_, Julius thought, recognizing that tone."Wait a minute… Julius? Is that you?" _Shit. Shit. Shit._ "What the fuck are you doing back here?"

"Larry, I know, I'm banished, but—" Julius felt extremely inferior to his former boss, even though he had a good foot and a half over Larry and was in way better shape.

"Damn right, you're banished, you animal fucker!" The words cut through Julius like a knife through soft butter. All this time he lived in denial. All this time he told lies about his past. And to hear the truth being told directly to his face made his heart snap in two. "You were caught having sex with nearly every goddamn species in this place. You're lucky I didn't have you arrested, you sick son of a bitch!" Tears were starting to pour down Julius' face. "Thanks to your circus friend who paid me off to keep it all a secret. How's that going by the way, huh? He let you stick your dick in any of the—"

"_SHUT UP LARRY!_" Julius screamed, startling his ex-boss into submission. Julius was seeing red, and couldn't help but lash out. Holding tightly to the key ring in his hands, he squeezed one key tightly between his middle and ring finger, and then jabbed his fist forward multiple times, stabbing Larry in the gut repeatedly. Larry was too taken aback to even react. He just stood there and let the man do that to him. After about six jabs to the stomach, Larry fell to the floor, while Julius wiped his brow.

Melvin's body was used to lure the leopard, while Larry's body was used to lure the wolf.

* * *

><p>At around ten o'clock at night, Lura found herself nestled into Barnaby's bare chest. It was literally the last place she wanted to be at the moment. But she had her reasons. Pretending to be closer to Barnaby once again, as if their little ménage-à-trois miraculously fixed all of their problems, would hopefully aid her in gaining the answers she wanted. All she wanted was her baby back.<p>

"That was great, Charles," she whispered as she pet his cheek.

"I never thought we'd exchange words after sex ever again. Granted I never thought we'd have sex again."

"You've been through so much, baby. Your father almost died, your mother was locked away… I tried to cheat on you to make you jealous."

He held her head closer to his body and started to stroke her luscious golden hair. "I didn't see it that way, Lura. I saw that as you provoking me. Challenging my manhood." Lura couldn't help but roll her eyes. _Is he for real?_ "I just took advantage of the situation and added myself to the equation."

"And I'm glad you did." She kissed him on the lips and returned her head to her original position. Now that she buttered him up, it was time to start her mission. "Can I ask you something?"

"Yes, of course, my dear."

"Why didn't you kill David that night?" Barnaby's hand stopped stroking her hair, and he remained still, as if the slightest move would trigger her to attack.

"What do you mean?"

"You told me that you had another baby in David's place the night you killed Raul. You had a _decoy_ baby to make me think it was David. The question is, though, why didn't you just kill David? I mean you had him, didn't you?"

Barnaby started to sweat, literally. Lura could feel his perspiration on her and she sat up to look him straight in the eyes. "Babe, I thought we were going to put this behind us."

"I am putting this behind us. But in order for me to gain some closure on this, I need to know everything that happened." He couldn't stop staring at her. She was so incredibly beautiful. Looking into those eyes reminded him of how foolish he was to have hurt an incredible woman like her. "Why didn't you use David and actually kill him that night?"

"Because, Lura, we didn't have David." He sat up too, sitting next to her and taking her hands in his. She resisted at first, but then she just let it happen. "Someone took David from us before we were about to contact Raul. We _were_ planning on… killing David. But he was taken from us."

"By who?"

Suddenly Barnaby glared at her. He knew what she was up to. Trying to get the information that she wanted. Find out where her son was, so she could leave the circus behind, find him, and raise him herself. "I'm tired, Lura. I want to get some sleep." He let go of her hands and lied down, covering his body with the covers.

She didn't want to do this, but it was her last resort. If she was this close to finding out where her baby was, it had to be done. "Yes," she uttered.

"Yes what?" Barnaby mumbled with his face smashed into his pillow.

"Yes. I'll marry you."

* * *

><p>It was nearing midnight, so Parker decided it was a good time to head off to bed. The train had departed a few minutes ago and was in transit to New York City. There, Parker was told, they will meet up with Julius, who has some more animals that will be added to the program. <em>Great… MORE animals<em>, he thought to himself. _Julius better help out with them, or else I'll have to ask Barnaby for a raise._ Ever since Julius was tasked with watching over Cassandra, Parker was forced to tend to all the wildlife aboard the Barnaby Traveling Circus train. And he realized it was very similar to the work he had to do on the farm, maybe a little too similar, being asked to take over most of the work, not getting much respect from the man in charge. Parker regretted the way he lashed out at Barnaby the other day, but he wouldn't mind attacking the man if he laid a hand on him one more time.

Parker was nearing the end of the dark corridor where his room was. Suddenly something stopped him. He couldn't tell who or what at first, but it definitely became clear that it was a "who" rather than a "what". The individual snuck up behind him and wrapped its arms around his neck, and then forcefully dragged him backwards down the corridor. _Shit, shit, shit!_ The person's other arm was wrapped underneath Parker's arm and then behind his head, putting him in a half nelson. Parker tried to worm himself out of the hold, but by the time he did, he was thrown into another room, onto a cold metal floor. The lights turned on and the door was locked behind them. Parker looked up to see Sanguine standing over him.

"Hello, boy." And like that, the old man swung a baseball bat at Parker's head.

Moments later, Parker woke up and found himself in shackles, all four limbs stretched apart, up against a wall. He looked to his left and saw a younger boy in a similar position, although it looked like that boy was near death. He didn't know it, but Parker was looking at Jacob Carson. Suddenly a figure appeared from the dark corner of the room. It was Sanguine.

"I knew it," snapped Parker to the clown. "I knew you were the Birdman. You killed that clown, and the sword swallower, and you framed Athena for the crimes. I will not be one of your victims!" Parker started to squirm, but it was of no use. The shackles were locked on tight, and the chains barely allowed him to budge.

Sanguine, meanwhile, guffawed heavily. "Oh, Parker. I'm getting quite sick of that running little mouth of yours. Let's fix that, shall we?" The elderly clown walked over to the other side of the room, where a small portable vacuum cleaner was propped up against the wall. Sanguine plugged it in, dragged the machine so it was right in front of Parker, removed the hose, and jammed it onto his mouth, forcing the suction to pull his lips inside. At first Parker just shouted, not wanting to be subjected to this. But as time went on it started to really hurt, and the shouts became screams and wails and cries. But even three hours later, Sanguine wouldn't turn it off.

* * *

><p>Athena found a bag of chips that she wouldn't mind munching while on the road. She went up to the clerk and paid for their provisions, then met Victor outside at the gas pumps. "Large coffee, black, two sugars," she said, handing him the to-go cup.<p>

"Thanks." He clicked the pump two more times to get an even thirty dollar reading on the meter, and then packed everything away.

"Dorito?" Athena asked, offering him the bag once he got in the car and buckled up.

"No thanks… Doritos and coffee, not that great of a combination."

"Kind of like Marty and I."

"Right, so get back to that story, now." Victor turned his head to the left as he merged back onto the highway and they resumed their road trip to hunt after the circus train.

Athena took a sip from the water bottle she just purchased before clearing her throat. "Marty used to be a clown for hire. You know, your child has a birthday party, and you hire a clown to make balloon animals and perform tricks for the kids and what have you." Daintily she placed her hand in the bag and removed one single chip, and nibbled on it until half of it remained intact. "It was a great gig. He made great pay. In fact he had jobs all over the island, and even a few in the city! We even got his old friend, Anthony, who worked at an ad agency. He helped us make a brand out of it, and it really helped Marty get more notice out there. And the kids loved him too. He just had that way with kids. Some people just have that charm, that patience, that willingness."

"Sounds like everything was perfect. What happened?"

"Anthony got promoted, and he recruited Marty to take his old job. Marty quit the party business altogether, and eventually he and Anthony climbed the rungs of the company together. When Anthony left one position, Marty was there to take his place. It was during this time that we had Charles together. I was a stay-at-home mother, and Marty was making more money than ever. Everything was perfect. We were even going to have more kids. And then it happened." Victor could tell he was finally going to hear the nitty-gritty of the story.

"Anthony was involved in a drug ring. Long story short, he ended up using company money to save his own ass, and eventually the entire agency went under. So, Marty was unemployed for a very long time. Eventually I convinced him to get back into the party clown gig. At this point Charles was around five years old. So it really was perfect timing, after all we had friends with kids and Charles served as our own little advertisement, telling all the kids at his school that his daddy could perform at their birthday parties."

"Still not sure when the story's going to get good here," grunted Victor, shoving his hand into the bag and finally deciding to take a chip. He was right: Doritos and coffee, not a good combination.

"Hey, I'm an old lady. We like to tell drawn-out stories. Now where was I?"

"Uh… Marty was doing the clown gig again."

"Oh, right! Well, he started to hate it after that. He was so much happier at the ad agency, working with his friend. There weren't nearly as many people this time around looking to hire a clown. And Marty was a father this time around. He knew what it was like to deal with his own child, and to deal with more only drove him nuts. He lost that way with kids in an instant. There was no more charm, no more patience, no more willingness." Athena wiped her fingers clear of any Dorito dust as she proceeded to finish the story. "One afternoon he was performing at one of Charles' friend's parties. And this kid, she was a real brat. Elizabeth Cartwright. Her mother was a real piece of work too. She would never discipline her daughter. And Marty was at his wit's end with this girl. Every time he made a balloon animal, she popped it. Every time he told a joke, she insisted that it wasn't funny. I even think she tried to pull off his nose at one point, but no one really knows. Well, the party ends around four in the afternoon, and the Cartwrights say goodbye to all their guests, and then they realize little Elizabeth has gone missing. She was found a few days later, abandoned in an alley covered in bruises and marks. I think her right arm was broken, too. Elizabeth never knew who her kidnapper and abuser was, but only because Marty was smart enough to wear a mask."

Victor wasn't entirely sure how to respond. He got goose bumps all over his arms. "What kind of sick person does that to a five year old?"

"Marty was abused as a child as well, by his own father. He always used to tell me, he never understood what joy his father got out of beating him up on a daily basis. But once he did it himself, he knew exactly what it was. Marty told me it was justified. He would only attack the kids who really deserved it. Your son, I presume, was probably heckling him that night. That's what sets him off."

"So this whole circus thing was a means for Marty to get his jollies by abusing young children?"

"Essentially, yes, that's how it all started. Charles idolized his father. He knew well and good all along about what Marty did. But something made him appreciate it. I think it was because Marty never even dared to entertain the thought of harming his own son. Charles knew it, Marty knew it, and I knew it. They had such a great bond those two, and they still do. The circus was Charles' way of accepting his father's vices, and a means of showing him thanks for never letting it happen to him. I, of course, stuck around because I wanted to make sure everything stayed in line."

"Doesn't that make you an accomplice, or something? You knew all along."

"I know lots of things, Victor. I am actually psychic, as you're well aware. I can look at a person and recognize in an instant if they committed a murder." Victor suddenly tensed up. _Does she know about the plane?_ "But is it my responsibility to throw all of them in prison? No."

"Alright, alright. So let me try to fully wrap my head around this… Marty, a.k.a. Sanguine the Clown has my son. But you said that there were two different answers to my questions. If he has my son, who's been killing all of your circus performers?"

Athena stuffed her face with a couple of chips. "Oh, the Birdman, you mean? It was the new boy, Parker. Parker Redford."


	8. Bloodletting

Parker woke up to a horrible smell. He knew exactly where it was coming from: the younger boy shackled up next to him. Jacob noticed that Parker was aware of the stench, and felt the need to apologize. "I'm sorry, man. I couldn't hold it in any longer. It's not like this psycho gives us many bathroom breaks." Parker tried to make a cringed face, but his lips still hurt too much to move them in that way.

"How long have you been in here?" he asked the kid.

"I honestly don't know. It feels like it's been weeks." Jacob shifted around, trying to not let his now-soiled pants irritate him. "My parents and I came to the show on the twenty-fourth. That was the night they launched me from a cannon and held me captive."

"Last I checked it was the thirtieth. I think now it's the thirty-first." Jacob closed his eyes and tried to cry. _A week. I've been here a whole week._ "Happy Halloween," Parker said, in a poor attempt to cheer the kid up. Needless to say it didn't work.

Then Parker began to cry. This kid was dying. He was shackled. He was tortured. He was abused. All for seemingly nothing, and all by the sick individual that was Sanguine. "Why are you crying?" Jacob asked. Parker just looked at him and continued to sob, not even caring about the immense pain that came to his quivering lips.

"I feel like I failed you," he managed to blurt out. "I let that fucker live."

As if he was responding to his cue, Sanguine entered the dungeon. "Uh-oh. It smells like little Jake had an accident!" Sanguine started to laugh, but the fumes overpowered him and he stopped to get some fresher air into his lungs. "Jesus, kid, what the hell did you eat?"

"Wish I could tell you, I can't remember the last full meal you gave me."

"Hey, come on. That veal from that restaurant was exquisite, was it not?" Sanguine walked over to Jacob and pinched his cheek. "I'm glad you took care of that _duty_ now as opposed to later. Did you know, Jake, that it's common for someone to soil himself when he dies?" Jacob began to get worried, now that death was being brought into the conversation. "I mean, think of how embarrassing that is. The last action you might ever remember doing in this life… is shitting your pants! But luckily, you already took care of that."

"Why are you going to kill me?" Jacob asked.

"Because… I have a new toy," Sanguine said, sweeping his head to face Parker. And without taking his eyes off the young man, Sanguine revealed a corkscrew from his pocket and thrust it into Jacob's abdomen several times. The boy squealed in horror as the man did it without even bothering to look at him. Blood started to spew from the seven, no, eight holes in his body. The clown then walked over to the other side of the room, found a bucket, and placed it underneath the boy. "Don't want to get the floors too dirty, Jacob." Eerily, Sanguine waved his white-gloved hand at the boy. "Farewell." Jacob clung to life as long as he could, but it was no use. He bled out within seconds.

Parker, meanwhile, was blubbering like a madman as he watched Sanguine kill the poor boy. "You sick fuck! What's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with _me_? How about we take a look in the metaphorical mirror, pal? You murdered my good friend Jumpin' Jack. And Barnaby's close companion Diego. And you almost took my own life. I have one question to ask you, Parker: why?"

"You really don't remember, do you?" Parker replied, somewhat offended.

"I've lived to see seventy years, buddy boy. You're going to have to be a little more specific. What don't I remember?" At this point Sanguine felt it was necessary to pull up a chair. The sound of Jacob's blood pouring out of his body and filling the bucket was rather soothing and set the mood quite nicely.

"How many victims have you had over the years?" the farm boy asked.

Sanguine rolled his eyes. "I didn't know there was going to be a math test involved! I'd venture to say around… a hundred, hundred and fifty, maybe."

"Well let's just say… this isn't the first time you've had me chained up in here."

Sanguine was rather stunned as he heard Parker say that. "You're telling me that, that I abused you once before?" Parker just glared at him angrily. "And so _that's _why you came back. _That's_ why you sought to kill off my clown troupe and the whole circus. But then what I don't get is… why did you let me live? Was that all a trick? You saved me to make it seem like you were the good guy? Was that it?"

"No." Parker sniffled the snot that was starting to drool out of his nostril. "I… I couldn't do it." Sanguine couldn't help but grin.

"So let me get this straight… you devise this entire plan to return to this circus and kill us all as a way to get back at me for torturing you as a child. And just when you get the chance to kill me… just when I'm tossed over the edge of a tightrope and hanged thirty feet up in the air… you realize that you couldn't do it?" Parker couldn't respond. He just started to cry. "You're weak. And you know what? You always were weak."

Parker was surprised to hear that last part. "You remember me?"

"I think we're done strolling down memory lane, don't you agree? Now that you're a full grown boy, I think it's time to… _promote_ you to some more advanced procedures." Sanguine walked over to the boy being drained of blood. "But first… how about a nice soak down?" Without even giving Parker time to respond, the clown dumped the now-filled bucket of blood over his head. Sanguine hollered laughing at the spectacle in front of him. "That was a nice treat. What should we do for phase two?" He disappeared for a few minutes and returned with a power drill. Parker could barely see as Jacob's blood continued to drip over his eyes. "Now, should we use an existing orifice, or should we make our own?" Sanguine asked maniacally, pulling on the trigger several times to rev up the drill bit.

* * *

><p>Several hours later, Julius caught up to the train. After managing to obtain and restrain a wolf and a leopard, a moving van was arranged to arrive to pick him up as well as his precious cargo. Before long the van and the train reunited just on the border of Brooklyn and Queens. Julius generously tipped the van driver, completely unaware it was the same man who found Cassandra's body while fishing in the ocean, and helped unload the animal cages.<p>

"Hello, Julius!" greeted Barnaby as he exited the train. "I take it everything went well." Instead of a courteous reply, Julius punched his boss in the face. Charles fell to the ground and instinctively cupped his hands around his nose, which started to bleed. "Have you gone mad?" he exclaimed as he got back to his feet.

"You're sick, Barnaby. Why the _fuck_ would you make me go back there?"

"Because I'm your boss and because you agreed to it. Why, did you have any troubles?"

"Well, I ran into Larry. Killed that son of a bitch and used his body to get the wolf into her cage."

Barnaby angrily glanced down at his now red-stained gloves. "Alright, that's good! I'm sure you've been dying to do that for ages now."

"Barnaby, I've gone on all these years pretending like that part of me didn't exist. As if that part of my life never even happened. And then it all comes flashing in my face and I—I lost control!"

"Alright, alright. It's all over now. The body's gone, correct?"

"Bod_ies_. Ran into Melvin too. And yeah, the animals finished them off by the time we got here. I'll bury the bones later."

"Good. Now help that man put the animals into their cages and go have yourself a bath or something. You deserve some time to de-stress." Julius just nodded his head in response. "Oh, and one more thing." Barnaby quickly smacked the lion tamer on the side of the head. "You owe me dry cleaning for these gloves."

After the animals were unloaded, Julius quickly ran to his room to find Cassandra just as he left her, bathing away in her tub of water. "Hey," he said with a sigh of relief. Seeing her made him forget all of the negative feelings that were harboring up inside of him. He kissed her on the forehead. "Are we ready to go?"

"Are we really leaving?" Cassandra asked, remembering the promise they made before he left to go into the city. "Where are we going to go?"

"For now, a motel, just for a night or two. I haven't had a steady home in years, so we'll have to keep hopping around. But we'll sort that out later." He grabbed all of his suitcases that he had previously packed. "I've got a driver out there waiting for us."

"This is all so surreal," she said calmly. Julius ran out and put the bags in the van, and then, after making sure Barnaby wasn't looking, he snuck Cassandra in as well. Without even saying goodbye, he left, caressing the love of his life in his lap as he ordered the driver to leave the premises.

* * *

><p>Victor impatiently tapped his thumb against the steering wheel as he waited for Athena to get back. Her old limbs got restless if she sat for too long, and she made Victor stop the car every twenty minutes. Not only that, but there were countless stops for the restroom and for snacks. <em>Jesus, she's worse than my own mother.<em>

Finally she waltzed back to the car and got in. "Phew, it's getting chillier and chillier."

"Yes, well, it's fall. Actually…" Victor pulled out his phone. "Yep. It's Halloween. I'm supposed to be at the county festival this evening, but at this rate it looks like that won't be happening." He rolled his eyes noticeably.

Athena judged him with a stern look. "Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year. It's Martin's favorite time of year as well."

"Oh yeah? Why's that?"

"He likes to prey on the trick-or-treaters. Barnaby usually makes sure to stop the train on Halloween to give his father the night off. And Martin wreaks havoc as Martin usually does."

"So… what's the plan when we get there?" asked Victor, turning up the heat in the car. "We can't get police involved obviously, we have to take him down ourselves."

"Exactly!" Athena agreed triumphantly, while at the same time trying to unscrew her water bottle. "Could you?" Victor broke the seal on the cap with a seamless twist and gave it back to her. "You're a peach." After taking a sip, she continued. "Yes, we're going to have to think of a way to distract Martin, long enough to sneak into his lair and retrieve Jacob."

"And what about Barnaby? Won't he be upset?"

"Well, we'll just have to wait and see. Onward, Victor, we can't be too far off their trail now!"

_If we keep stopping to stretch our legs we'll never fucking get to them,_ he thought to himself as he pulled back onto the highway.

* * *

><p>Julius was able to snag the last vacant room at a nearby motel. Wrapping a blanket around Cassandra's tail, he carried her into the room as if he was carrying his bride over the threshold, and then brought in their luggage, tipping the van driver generously, with an added bonus to keep this a secret from Barnaby.<p>

"Should we order room service? I'm starving." Julius eagerly sat down on the bed and flipped through the static channels on the TV.

"Julius?" she asked demurely.

"Yes, my love?"

Cassandra was a bit taken aback by that pet name. "I—I want to go home."

"I know you do, sweetheart. We'll find a home for ourselves eventually." Julius continued to change stations until he found a news channel that wasn't busted. There was breaking news of some animals being taken from the Bronx Zoo by an unknown felon. He immediately turned the television off.

The mermaid, meanwhile, stared at him, waiting for him to look at her. She was getting frustrated that he wasn't catching on. "I don't think you get it, Julius. I want to go back to my old home. I miss my family, and my friends. I didn't sign up for the circus."

"But… but we're out of the circus, babe. It's just you and me!" He grabbed her hands in his like he did countless times before, only this time she sensed they felt a bit rougher than they used to. "We found each other by fate. See, I feel like you died in that plane crash for a reason." Cassandra couldn't believe that he just uttered those words. "It brought you to me. And now we're in love."

She didn't want to look away from him. For the first time since they became acquainted, Cassandra felt afraid of him. The look he gave her was more… _feral, yes, that's the word._ "Julius, I think I just need to calm down." He grinned to show her he understood. "Would you mind running me a bath?"

"Of course." He got up and went into the dingy bathroom, and moments later she heard the water running out of the faucet. "It's not pristine, but at least you get a full-sized tub for once!" he shouted. Cassandra smiled, but immediately relaxed her face and returned to her look of concern.

Once the tub was filled to the brim he transported her into it and naturally went to help her unclasp her seashell bra. She quickly swatted his hands away, insisting, "I'll do it, thanks." Julius let her do it, but instead of walking out of the bathroom like she expected, he just stood there, gazing at her. "Do you need anything else?"

"Are you okay, Cassandra? You seem out of it all of a sudden." Cassandra stopped to think. _Maybe I am just out of it. Maybe this is all in my head? He's just trying to help, just trying to be a good guy._

"Yeah, I'm fine."

He sighed a big sigh of relief. "Good." And with that he started to remove his clothes. Cassandra couldn't help but stare. She wasn't sure how she should be staring, though. She would think it would be in an erotic way, but all she could think of how uncomfortable this was. Julius stripped all the way down to reveal a growing erection. He looked at her for her sign of approval… a nod, a wink, or anything to let him know that she acknowledged his arousal and that she was aroused too. But she did none of that. Julius thought she just needed a bit of a warm-up, so he carefully hopped into the tub with her, pressing his nude body on top of hers. The water overflowed onto the bathroom floor to compensate for the added mass in the tub.

And then she felt it. _It_. It was prodding. Looking for something down there amongst her scales. An entrance.

"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, startling the man.

"Um… what do you think I'm doing, Cassandra?"

"I'm not going to have sex with you! I'm not even sure _how_ to have sex with you!"

"Shh, it's okay, baby. We'll make it work."

"Fuck that! Get off of me!" Cassandra started to slap his legs with her tail and tried to free herself from his weight on top of her. Finally she managed to pull herself up from the edge of the tub and clumsily slide out, her fins following her like a slimy snake. Cassandra then waddled towards the door.

"Cassandra, where are you going?" Julius got out of the tub and carefully stepped out to retrieve her.

Miraculously she opened the door and managed to pull herself into the bedroom with just her two arms. Then she started to scream. "Help me! Someone help me! He's attacking me! He's trying to rape me!" Surely someone in the neighboring rooms was bound to hear her and come to her rescue.

"What the fuck are you doing?" the lion tamer yelled, exiting the bathroom to calm her down.

"Someone please help me!" she continued to scream, not even listening to him.

Without even thinking about what he was doing, Julius grabbed the lamp from the bedside table and smashed it against the back of her head. "_SHUT UP!_" he cried, doing what he thought was the only way to keep her quiet and save his ass. He hauled her off of the floor to hopefully smack the crazy out of her, but when he did he realized she was limp. "No…" he whispered. Frantically he threw her onto the bed and checked her pulse. There wasn't one. "No. No! _NO!_" Julius sat there, naked, crying over Cassandra's body for a good hour or so, thinking about what he had done.

* * *

><p>Sanguine walked down the hall after safely securing the doorway to his dungeon. When he made it to Barnaby's office, he prepared to knock, only to have the door already opened by Lura from the other side. "Oh, hi, Marty." She closed the door behind her. "Barnaby's in there if you need to see him."<p>

"I do, thanks, doll. But first, how are you?"

"I'm… okay, why?"

"The other night at the restaurant, you told me that you and Barnaby were going through a bit of a rough patch… and then you turned down his marriage proposal. What's the latest news with you two? Is my boy treating you fairly?" Lura looked at the man and was about to burst into tears. She was fractions of a second away from telling him everything, about how Barnaby stole her baby, about how he covered up his death and how little baby David is somewhere out there, about how Barnaby locked her away in the funhouse mirror closet for days once she confronted him about it, and about how he got sexually involved with Parker just to foil her revenge plan. But she couldn't. As much as she loved the man standing in front of her, and as much as she felt comfortable enough to tell Sanguine anything, she simply couldn't.

"Oh he's, uh, he's treating me very well, Marty." After pausing for a few seconds she continued. "As a matter of fact, I accepted his proposal."

"Wow! That's a complete turn-around, isn't it? Congratulations, darling." He gave her a great hug and gently rubbed her back. "You know I always saw you as my daughter anyway. At least now it'll be nice to actually call you my daughter!"

"Thanks, Marty." Before the tears started to noticeably well into her eyes, she said, "I have to get going. Have you seen Parker by any chance?"

"No! Not at all, sorry, kid." Lura shrugged and walked away. Sanguine rolled his eyes one the coast was clear and he entered his son's office. "So… I hear congratulations are in order?"

"She told you?" Barnaby asked, with a tone of amusement in his voice. "Don't buy it. She's only buttering up to me to get the truth out of me."

"About what?" The ringmaster widened his eyes, and Sanguine knew exactly what he was talking about just from that one signal. "Oh. Gotcha. So, hey, um… remember how you thought that Ruuxa chick was the Birdman?"

"Yes, that's because she is. _Was_. I took care of that bitch."

"Yeah, well, you were wrong."

"What do you mean? It all made sense. The gas mask and the crown made out of feathers, it… wait, you know who it is?"

"Your sweet farm boy." Barnaby's jaw dropped. "I got him tied up in the dungeon as we speak. Guess what his motive was?" Barnaby just shook his head, not willing to play a guessing game. "He was one of my previous victims." It took Barnaby a minute, but it finally all clicked, just as Sanguine hoped it would.

"Holy shit," Barnaby exhaled, at a complete loss for words. "Holy shit!" he said, louder this time. "That means…" Barnaby didn't even need to finish that sentence. Sanguine just nodded his head in a regretful agreement.

* * *

><p>Ruuxa strolled across the beach, letting the loose sand fill the gaps between her toes. She breathed in the salty sea air, carefully, of course. Barnaby's little bout of rage a few nights ago resulted in her nose cartilage completely shattering. The only thing holding it together was the skin wrapped around it. She used her knowledge of nature to create a soothing remedy, and most of the pain died down. However the damage was not undone. Ruuxa almost felt ashamed showing her face in public, but on a cool Halloween evening, there were hardly any people on the beach, just a group of rowdy teenagers who clearly had better things to do than to go trick-or-treating.<p>

She looked out into the ocean and watched the waves roll in. "Any minute now," she said to herself. Her senses tingled the minute Cassandra died, and they brought her to this exact location. Suddenly a bulge in the ocean appeared, as if something large was headed towards the shore. The bulge quickly turned into a depression, and then a wave formed. Ruuxa stood her ground and braced herself as she watched the wave crash on the shore. The water receded, leaving behind a massive skirt of sand. Only it wasn't all entirely sand. It was ash.

Before her eyes the wet clumps of sand started to pull towards one another, as if a gravitational force caused them to accrete, as if an imaginary child was building a sandcastle. Some of the teens on the beach started to take notice of what was happening and took out their phones to take pictures and videos. The sand and ash and clay and whatever particles were there were building themselves up to almost six feet, and then the details started to form. Ruuxa smiled as the spitting image of Ellen Carson emerged. The ashes combined to make an exact life-sized representation of their former body.

"Hello," the sand creature said.

"Hello," Ruuxa replied. "I've been expecting you."


	9. Pinned Ankles

"What's going on?" asked Ellen, shaking as she slowly looked down upon herself and realized she was made of nothing but coagulated ash and sand and dirt.

"My name is Ruuxa. Come with me, we must bring you back where you belong. I'll explain everything along the way." Ellen was hesitant at first, but she took the woman's extended hand. Ruuxa twitched a bit as the sandy palm scraped against hers, but tried not to make a show of it. "Be gone, you hooligans!" she shouted at the teenagers still recording the incident. "It's nothing more than a Halloween costume."

"Bullshit," one of them said. "We saw that sand build itself! What are you, some sort of magician?"

"Yes," Ruuxa replied sarcastically. "And unless you want your white ass to disappear, I suggest you hand me that phone so I can delete that video."

"Fuck off, psycho bitch, I'm not giving you my phone." Without even giving it another thought, Ruuxa extended her hands and slowly started to drag the life out of the boy. He started choking and fell on the beach on his hands and knees.

"Holy shit!" one of his friends cried.

"Someone help him!" another shouted, crouching down to help him. They all witnessed the smoky apparition of his life beginning to seep out of his mouth.

"One of you little shits better give me that phone now, or he _will_ die!" The girl on the ground quickly grabbed his phone from his hand and tossed it at her. Ruuxa put the life back inside the boy and he scrambled to regain his breath. Smirking, the shaman picked up the phone and deleted the video and pictures. She marched back over to him and tossed the phone onto his stomach. He looked up at her, mortified. "You know what will happen if anyone mentions this. That goes for all of you!" Two of the teens helped the boy stand up, and all of them looked upon the woman in fear. "Happy fucking Halloween," she stated, and then turned around and guided Ellen off the beach.

"That was pretty badass," said Ellen. "My son is starting to enter that rebellious stage, I don't even want to look forward to that."

"You don't know what happened to you, do you?" asked Ruuxa, surprised at what she just heard the other woman say.

"Um no… could you please explain like you said you would?"

"Did you see how I just took down that boy back there?" Ellen nodded. "I was removing the life from his body. A few more seconds and he would have been dead, because I would have harnessed his soul. I did the same to you, not too long ago."

Ellen stopped walking and faced Ruuxa. "Why did you do that?"

"It was for Mr. Barnaby. He had a… _project_. He was attempting to make his own mermaid, by stitching together the upper half of a woman and the lower half of a fish. The only problem was… both the woman and the fish were dead. So, he needed a life. We used yours."

"So you're telling me that I died?"

"Yes. But apparently the mermaid must have died too. When that happens, that life force has nowhere else to go but into its original host. I'm assuming you were cremated and dumped into the ocean somehow. So your ashes recollected and formed a corporeal version of your former self. And now you are brought back to life."

Ellen was having a hard time fully understanding what was going on. "Okay, you're kidding, right? I'm not really entirely made of ashes. This is like a sick joke, _right_?"

"No, you're not entirely made of ashes. I'm assuming there's some sand, maybe a few pebbles, whatever other debris washed up with the tide. But basically, yes. If I wanted to, I could put my hand right through your stomach and pull out a handful of tiny beach particles." Ellen wasn't quite sure how to react. "But don't sweat it, it's Halloween. Everyone will probably think you're dressed as the Sandman." Ruuxa guffawed mightily at her own joke. "Now come, we need to get you home."

"Home? You mean, with Victor?"

"Who knows? I just take you to where you were when I took the life out of you. In this case, it's the circus train."

"Like hell I want to go there!" Ellen crossed her arms, and the friction between them caused some ashes to fall to the ground. "On second thought, it might be nice to give Barnaby a piece of my mind." Ellen gave in and allowed Ruuxa to lead her. "Hey, do you happen to know if that sword swallower guy is still there?"

* * *

><p>Victor parked the car once they arrived at the train station. He turned the ignition off and sat there, staring at the Barnaby Traveling Circus train. Athena stared too. Neither one of them was quite sure what to do next, so they just sat there and stared.<p>

"I have to be honest… I'm fucking nervous. I've never attacked a man, much less killed one."

"Oh, Victor, you silly man. You keep forgetting I'm psychic, don't you? I know all about that little plane fiasco."

"But that wasn't my direct doing! I just arranged for it to happen. I didn't kill Marcus Buchanan with my own two hands. I didn't watch the life leave his body. As much as I want to kill Sanguine, I… I don't think I can bring myself to do that!"

Athena adjusted herself so she looked directly at him. "Listen to me, Victor. That man is a menace. He kidnapped your son, shot him out of a cannon, let him fall flat on his face on a concrete surface, shackled him up in a dungeon, whipped him severely, starved him, and…"

"And what?" Victor's eyes widened as he realized she purposely stopped herself.

"I didn't want to be the one to tell you. I thought it might make you want to give up."

"_What?_" He started to get worried now. "Don't say what I think you're about to say. Don't say it, Athena. Don't… don't tell me my son is already dead." She couldn't even say it, though, because she started to cry. Victor quickly followed suit, and Athena offered her shoulder for him to weep on. She wanted to keep consoling him, but after just a few seconds, Victor sat up straight, wiped the wetness from his cheeks with the backs of his hands, and then got out of the car.

"Victor… Victor! Where are you…? Victor!" Athena fumbled with her seatbelt and exited the car, only to find that he was practically sprinting towards the train and had already gotten there.

The mayor stepped onto the train, just as Barnaby was exiting his office. "Oh for fuck's sake, what are you doing—" Barnaby started to ask. However he was cut off by Victor's fist. The enraged blow caused Barnaby to reel back and hit his head against the wall. He slid down until he was sitting on the floor. Before he could even look up at his the mayor, Victor kicked him right in the face. After that, everything went black.

* * *

><p>Moments later, Barnaby finally came to. He was in his office, sitting in his chair, only he was stuck there, surrounded by duct tape. He looked around and saw Victor and Athena sitting on his bed. Victor noticed he was awake and motioned Athena to follow him.<p>

"Well, well, well, look who's up." Victor eerily smiled at the man. Barnaby was about to reply, but he found it difficult; his mouth was taped shut as well. Victor went to remove the tape, but Barnaby shook his head furiously away from his hand. "Calm down, I'm taking it off." Barnaby gave him an angry glare, but held his head still. Victor carefully got his finger under one of the corners of the tape, and then forcefully ripped it off.

"You _motherless_—" Barnaby scrunched up his face and let the pain subside. "Why are you here? And why do you have my mother? Did you break her out of prison?"

"No, Charles," she said, coming into view and standing next to Victor. "He bailed me out. He knows I'm innocent. We all know I'm innocent."

Barnaby sighed and tried to adjust himself in the chair as best he could. "Okay, fine, Parker is the Birdman. He's been killing everyone, and he still probably has Jacob. So why don't you let me go and find the real culprit?"

Victor couldn't help but laugh. "Enough with the lies, you bastard. Sanguine's had my son all along. Every time I came to this circus train, he was just a few footsteps away from me. And you lied to cover your father's ass this entire time. You're just as guilty as he is."

"Mother… please, you can really stand there and watch this man tie up and abuse your son?" Barnaby gave Athena those sweet innocent eyes to try to gain her sympathy. But it wasn't working.

"I told you before, Barnaby. I'm done with this act. I can't keep living like this. Victor and I won't bring the authorities into this, but we just need this all to stop. You've ruined this man's life. His wife and son are _dead_ because of you!"

"Wait… Sanguine killed Jacob already?" Barnaby had no knowledge of that. He looked at the mayor, who was on the verge of tears. "I'm… I'm sorry, Victor. Truthfully, I am. But you can't blame me. I didn't kill him, Sanguine did. He's the man you want."

"Well then where is he?" asked Victor, clearly with some grief in his voice, even though he tried to maintain his composure. The last thing he wanted to do in this situation was appear weak.

"It's Halloween, you know that." Charles looked at his mother. "He's doing his annual rounds, and he probably won't be back until midnight."

"Then we'll wait," said Victor, sitting back down on the bed.

Athena walked over to her son and knelt down, placing her hands on his knees. "Charles, my sweet boy. Look at what you've done." She too was trying to hide back the tears, and seeing her in that state made Barnaby absolutely nuts. She quickly got up and walked away, not wanting to cry in front of him. Barnaby was now facing an empty wall, and he let his emotions get the better of him.

* * *

><p>About an hour later, Victor was anxiously pacing up and down the hallway outside Barnaby's room, constantly peeking out the window to see if Sanguine was returning. As he reached the end of the hallway and turned around, he clumsily bumped into Lura, who was making her way to Barnaby's office.<p>

"Oh, geez, I'm sorry," he said once he regained his footing. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. You're… Mayor Carson, right?"

"Yes, but please, call me Victor. Have we met before?"

"Well no, but I've seen you here several times lately, and Barnaby can't stop talking about how you nearly ruined his business." Lura made an embarrassed face as she realized she probably shouldn't have said that. Quickly trying to divert the conversation elsewhere, she extended her hand and said, "I'm Lura, acrobat, Barnaby's fiancé. Nice to _actually_ meet you."

"Likewise, Lura. Um… you wouldn't happen to know what's going on right now, do you?"

"That depends… what's going on?"

"Look, I don't mean to freak you out, but your fiancé is currently taped to a chair in his office." Victor squinted and braced for impact, waiting for her to start lashing out or hyperventilating or something along those lines. But she didn't do any of that. In fact, he could have sworn he saw her mouth curl into a little smile.

"Was this your doing?" she inquired.

"Mine and Athena's. Hang on." Victor opened the door and popped his head in, and a few seconds later Athena came outside.

"Oh Lura, my sweet girl. How are you doing?" She gave Lura a big hug.

"I'm fine, why? What's going on? Why do you have Barnaby tied up in there?"

"Taped up," Victor corrected. Both women rolled their eyes at him and he quickly turned away and continued to pace up and down the hall.

"Victor and I are here to retrieve his son, Jacob, and put an end to this whole Sanguine thing."

"What Sanguine thing?" Lura questioned as she gazed at her future mother-in-law in a puzzled manner.

"You… you honestly don't know, do you? Barnaby never told you what Sanguine's been doing all these years?"

* * *

><p>"You son of a bitch!" Lura shouted as she barged into the room and faced Barnaby.<p>

"Hey!" exclaimed Athena from behind, taking offense to her comment. She and Victor watched from the doorframe as Lura frustratingly grabbed the alarm clock off Barnaby's desk and forcefully threw it at his head.

"Jesus _fucking_ Christ!" he yelled after it bruised his forehead and landed on his lap. "Have you lost your mind?"

"All this time, Charles… all this _fucking_ time! First my baby, and now I find out that your father has secretly been kidnapping kids from our audience and abusing them in some sort of dungeon?" Barnaby found it hard to stare at her, mainly because the area around his eye was aching severely from the alarm clock that was just lunged at him there, but also because he hated seeing her like this. Lura seriously looked as if she was about to kill him. "Any other secrets you wish to tell me, Barnaby? Because I swear, after tonight, I am done. Fuck you and your lies and your schemes and your manipulating people." They locked eyes for a good solid minute, not breaking once. Then she continued, her voice somewhat soother and with more pain in it. "I'll admit it, I loved you. And maybe part of me still loves you. But it's so hard for me to look past all the shit you've put me through. You took my baby from me. And then you made me think he was dead all this time. How could I continue to love the man who would hurt me that way?" At this point she was nearly sobbing.

"Lura, sweetheart. You can't leave me yet. You can't leave… please."

"There's just one more thing I need to hear you say before I walk off this train for good, Charles." She squatted down and grasped onto the arms of the chair for support. Even though she was physically lower than him, he still felt as if she was towering above. "Where is David?"

"If I tell you, you'll fly away, and I—"

"_Enough with the stalling, you asshole!_" Lura grabbed the alarm clock from his lap and whacked him across the face with it, right about in the same spot where it hit him before. His head dropped and blood started to pour out of a cut that opened right above his cheekbone. Lura dropped the clock and put her head in her hands, and Athena swooped in bravely to comfort her.

"It's alright, darling. You didn't kill him. I think he's just unconscious… again." Athena cradled the woman in her arms and walked her over to the bed, and they sat down to let Lura bawl as much as she needed to.

"I'm sorry, Athena, I didn't mean to hurt him."

"No, no, love, no need to apologize. Frankly I wanted to do the same thing, you just had the balls to actually do it!" That little comment made Lura chuckle a bit, and she finally started to calm down.

They didn't even notice that Victor had disappeared, but they looked up as they saw him reappear in the doorframe. "I hate to break this up but… Sanguine's back." Victor then whipped out a pistol from the back of his waist.

"Jesus, Victor, I didn't know you were wielding a gun this entire time!" exclaimed Athena as she quickly started to envision how their little road trip together could have had a very nasty turn if that gun was brought into the mix.

"I keep it in the glove compartment," he replied. Athena made an audible gasp as she realized the weapon was mere inches from her that entire time in the car. "We ready?"

"Hang on… what exactly is this plan you two have concocted?" Lura asked, wiping the tears from her face.

"Simple. We hold the gun to his head, force him to open the dungeon, make him give us Jacob, and then shoot him, preferably right between the eyes." Victor held the gun up and everything to show schematically how this was all going to play out.

"Unless you want to go for a more… inhumane approach," Athena suggested. "I'd love to see Martin get a taste of his own medicine." Lura and Victor gave puzzled looks, not sure what she was referring to. "Oh come on, like he doesn't deserve to be shackled up on that wall and be beaten with a stick a few times?"

"Forget it, Athena. Let's just stick to the plan." Victor left the doorframe and headed down the hall, waiting for the right moment to attack.

* * *

><p>Sanguine returned to the circus train with a big grin on his face. This Halloween night was one of the most profitable ones he'd had in years. <em>So many kids<em>, he thought to himself blissfully, _in so little time._

He made his way to his room and fumbled for his key in his pocket. But he froze in his tracks once he felt something metal press against the back of his head. "Go on, don't let me stop you," Victor stammered from behind him. "Open the door."

"And who might I ask is making this request?" Sanguine asked, as if nothing was peculiar about this situation. "May I at least turn around and see the face of my captor?" Sanguine slowly slid his head around, making sure the gun stayed pressed against the surface of his skin. "Oh, it's you. The mayor." From the corner of his eye, Sanguine barely made out Athena and Lura standing at the other end of the hallway. "And we also have the acrobat and the bitch. Geez, this circus is quickly looking like the cast of Gilligan's Island." Lura smiled at the admittedly funny comparison he made. "So… where's ole Gilligan?"

"Charles is restrained!" shouted Athena.

"Did I ask you, bitch?" Sanguine shouted in response. Instantaneously Victor smacked the old man across the face with the gun. His red face paint smudged onto the pistol, and Victor made a disgusted face, quickly wiping it off on his shirt. Sanguine fell to the ground as a result of the blow.

"Listen here, you monster!" Victor stepped on Sanguine's chest, both keeping him down and restraining his breath. "We're in charge now. You have—_had_—my son Jacob all this time. I'm here to get him back. And as a token of my appreciation for your cooperation, I'd be more than happy to blow your fucking brains out!" Sanguine did his best at laughing with the mayor's foot pressing into his ribcage. Victor could sense his cheeks flushing with embarrassment. He wasn't trying to make the man _laugh_.

"Here," Sanguine said, tossing the keys out of his hand and onto the floor. "The dungeon's back there, behind this door. The key with the blue dot on it unlocks the shackles." Victor wasn't quite sure how to react. He looked at the two women down the hallway, and they both motioned for him to take the keys and go. He complied, grabbing the keys from off the floor and making his way into first the main room and then into the dungeon. He flipped on the light switch and was horrified at what was in front of him. Two young men, one coated in blood and severely wounded, and the other his own son, Jacob, the rigor mortis finally starting to die down. Victor wanted to cry, but he was pretty sure he was all out of tears at this point. He unlocked the shackles first at his ankles, and then at his wrists. Jacob fell into Victor's arms, and the mayor carefully carried him out of the dungeon, out of the room, and out of the train. Lura and Athena just watched in silence as he did this, not even bothering to distract him. He seemed to be on a mission, looking straight ahead the entire time, not even bothering to go back and kill Sanguine like he promised.

Once Victor left the train, Lura went to help Sanguine get up. "Lura!" Athena shouted, upset that she was helping the man. "What on earth are you doing?"

"It's done, Athena. This whole circus is done. Half of the clowns and Diego are dead, Julius went AWOL with the mermaid, I'm out of here the minute Barnaby tells me where David is, and you… you'll come with me, won't you?" Athena faintly grinned. "You'll help me find him?"

"Oh, of course, sweetie. I'd be happy to."

"We won, Athena. It's over. The Barnaby Traveling Circus is no more. There's no need to kill Sanguine. In a way, he already is dead. We cut off his vice. No more shows means no more audience, and no more audience means no more kids." Sanguine regained his footing and frowned as he heard Lura say this. "Marty, you know I love you, but I have to do this."

He shrugged. "I know you do, sweet cheeks. You've been hurt enough, it's time Gilligan and the Skipper get knocked down a peg for once. Before you go, would you mind helping me with one thing real quick?" He started to walk inside towards the dungeon, but neither Lura nor Athena followed him. "Oh come on, I'm not going to hurt you," he said to Lura. "_You_ on the other hand…" he began to say to Athena, which prompted her to give him the middle finger. Lura trusted the man and followed him into the dank room. She gasped and covered her mouth once she laid her eyes on Parker.

"What did you do to him?" she shrieked.

"Oh, you haven't heard? You're looking at our esteemed murderer." Lura was shocked to hear that. She never would have guessed it was Parker all along.

"Parker… is that true?" He was hardly coherent. The boy was still caked in Jacob Carson's blood and had several manmade holes drilled into his body. His lips started to sag as if they were pulled right off of his facial muscle, and his eyes were bloodshot, tired of staying alive. But he did manage to nod in response to her question.

Before anyone else could say anything, they heard Athena shout from the hallway, "Victor, wait!" They all turned their heads to see Mayor Carson enter the room. In a split second he pulled out his gun and shot Sanguine several times. The red clown practically exploded, as blood spewed out of him and made him even redder. Victor fired five shots into his chest, and one hit him just to the right of his nose and up into his head. Athena screamed, which was a rather surprising reaction given her hatred for the man. Without even acknowledging anyone else, Victor quickly picked Sanguine up by his two red feet and dragged him all the way out of the train, and then stuffed him into the trunk. It was only after closing the trunk did he see ashen Ellen approaching him.

* * *

><p>"Well isn't this just a mighty fine surprise?" Barnaby heard the woman's voice but wasn't sure who it belonged to. It nearly killed him just to open his eyes, but he finally came to and saw Ruuxa standing in front of him.<p>

"Wh—what are you doing here?"

"Returning an old friend. That mermaid of yours must've died. It's my duty to return Ellen Carson to her old resting place. So… why are you taped up? Who did you piss off now?"

"Ruuxa. I know we had a tumultuous past, and to be frank we never really got along to begin with."

She couldn't help but laugh. "_Tumultuous_? You shattered my nose! I could probably snort all the cartilage back and swallow it whole, thanks to you."

"I only did that because I falsely accused you of a crime that I now know you did not commit. Please, you're my only chance of getting out of this thing. There are evil forces at work trying to overrun my business as we speak. And my father may be in danger. All I ask is that you cut me loose." Ruuxa sat there and pondered the situation for a bit. "First I want my pay for the mermaid exchange. You _still_ haven't paid me yet."

"Fine. My safe is back in that closet. The code is nine two one six. Take as much as you want." Ruuxa smiled and disappeared into the closet. Barnaby heard her punch in the code and ruffle through the dollar bills. Then she returned, taking the letter opener off of his desk. Barnaby was a bit worried seeing her with such a sharp object, but thankfully she used it only to cut the tape and set him free. He didn't even stop to thank her. He just ran towards the dungeon.

* * *

><p>Lura pet Parker's face, horrified at the mangled mess he became. "Oh Parker, this is no way to live."<p>

"L… Lura…" he hardly stuttered.

"What? What is it?"

"K…" he gasped briefly to retrieve some air, and then continued. "Kill me." She wasn't quite sure how to react. Could she really do that to him?

"What if Athena and I get you out of here, and we get you to a hospital. Maybe the doctors can stitch up the drill holes and—"

"Too… late… won't… make it." His eyes, which were practically swollen shut from the multiple blows to the head he received, were looking right into hers, and they welled up with tears. "I was… bad." His hands started to shake as he tried to reach out to touch her, forgetting he was chained to the wall. "Do it." Lura carefully stepped closer to him. She left his line of vision briefly as she reached up to loosen the chain that held up his left arm. Once she had enough, she locked it in place and carefully wrapped the chain around his neck. "Parker, you were a great friend. And I'm so sorry I have to be the one to do this." Before they both started to lose their minds, she pulled onto the chain hard in opposite directions to choke him as hard as possible. He gagged, and she was worried that she wasn't actually killing him but rather hurting him even more, so she pulled harder. She winced in pain for him as she saw the metal dig deep into his neck and watched his face turn blue. Finally, after some struggling and effort, Parker took his last breath. When it was over, Lura removed the chain from his neck and let his left hand fall limp.

Suddenly she heard Athena scream from outside in the hallway. "Barnaby, don't go in there!" Then Lura heard a thud, presumably the old woman being shoved to the floor. Seconds later he appeared in the dungeon. Lura didn't know why, but she felt incredibly threatened being just alone in there with him. He focused on her at first, but then saw the dead farm boy, hanging limp on the wall. He covered his mouth with his hand and squinted. "Did Sanguine do this to him?"

"No," she responded quietly. "I did, just now." Barnaby's jaw dropped. He had a look of utter fear on his face, and Lura didn't know why. "It's over, Charles. Everything is over. And I'm tired of waiting for my goddamn answer. So just tell me. Where is my son?"

He wasn't quite sure how to go about telling her, but after a few seconds he figured it was best to just rip off the Band-Aid. "Well, um, you just killed him."

It took Lura a few seconds to fully register what he just said to her. Then, she was just engulfed in darkness. Everything she saw at first turned black. All the faint white noise surrounding her disappeared. And in an instant, she felt like she was back in that funhouse mirror, watching her horrid past replay in her mind. Finally she snapped back into reality. She was looking at Barnaby, but she slowly turned her head to gaze upon the young boy she just choked the life out of. That boy was _her_ boy. Parker was David all along, and she didn't even know it.

"You can't be serious," she said, on the verge of a breakdown at any second.

"I swear to all of the almighty gods that I am, Lura. Sanguine had a perfect track record. Not a single kid got out from under him. But David did. He was the only one who escaped our grasp. And Parker was one of Sanguine's victims, so the fact that he's still alive means it has to be the same kid. The minute Sanguine told me that, I knew immediately that he was your son."

"But… but David was just a baby when you took him from me." She still had her eyes totally focused on Parker.

"Believe it or not, Lura, that was over fifteen years ago. You probably kept imagining he was a baby all this time because you thought he was dead as a baby. But the timeline works out perfectly, Lura. Parker just turned eighteen on the twelfth of June. That was David's birthday, was it not?"

Lura was practically frozen. She didn't feel like answering Barnaby because they both knew it was. There was no denying it. This was really happening to her. The little boy that she gave birth to, that she raised for those very few years, that she finally dreamt of being reunited with… he was dead, and at her hand. It was all too fucked up to believe. She knelt down and picked up the keys that Victor had tossed on the floor. She undid Parker's right wrist shackle, and then the left. He landed on top of her, and she fell to the ground with him on top of her, still pinned to the wall by his ankles. She cradled the boy as if he was that same little baby she rocked to bed every night, and she cried.


	10. Ex Memoria

The car ride never seemed to end. Victor was driving. Ashen Ellen was to his right. Jacob's body was laid out across the back seat, with a towel wrapped around him so no one saw.

"Are you ever going to talk to me?" she asked, finally deciding to break the silence.

"I'm not sure. I'm not sure what exactly I want to say to you right now."

Ellen wanted to cry, but she knew she no longer possessed that bodily function. "Victor, I'm so sorry that I tried to sell you out to Barnaby. I just… I wanted my son back."

"You were willing to throw me in prison for multiple murder accounts just so you could get Jacob back! Were you going to continue raising him on your own? Were you ever going to tell him where I was? Were you ever going to let him come visit me? Did you even for a second think any of this through?" She was silent. She let him berate her. "No, all you cared about was killing two birds with one stone. You saw the opportunity to get out of this marriage without having to spend money on a divorce or kill me. I'm out of your hair and Jacob is back in his mother's arms. Win fucking win."

"None of that matters now, Victor! Our son is dead! Or did you not realize that? Did you just forget that you carried his body out of that dungeon? Come on, Victor! You can't possibly forget that we have a son to mourn over right now!" She was turned to look at him, but he kept his eyes on the road. "We hate each other, I get it. But the one thing we have in common is that we love Jacob. And we're both feeling the same hurt right now. So can we please put our differences aside and figure out a proper burial?"

Victor sighed to show he was agreeing.

"Speaking of a proper burial," she continued. "I'm surprised you gave me such a fantastic send-off. Cremated? Ashes thrown into the ocean?" He couldn't help but laugh as she spoke. "What?"

"You dumb bitch. I threw you in the fireplace and then flushed your ashes down the toilet!" Victor was now cackling as he recalled how he took care of his wife's body.

"Somehow that doesn't surprise me." She crossed her arms and continued to stare out the window. Once Victor stopped laughing, the rest of the car ride remained silent.

* * *

><p>Barnaby was almost halfway through the sixteenth canto of <em>Inferno<em> when he heard a knock on his door. _Who the bloody Christ is that?_ The only person left on the train who cared to talk to him now was Ruuxa. But when he got up to answer the door, he unexpectedly found Julius standing on the other side.

"Jesus Christ. Where—what—where did you go? Where did you come from?"

"Alright, Cotton Eyed Joe. It's nice to see you too." Julius showed himself in and sat down on Barnaby's bed, a little too calm, cool, and collected for the ringmaster these days. "I, uh, I did something bad."

"Well I know Cassandra's dead, if that's what you mean. So what, did you kill her?"

"Wait, how do you know that?" Julius quickly turned from suave and carefree to fearful and guilty.

"Ruuxa came back to return Ellen Carson, fully alive. Apparently it's what happens when the exchange is undone or whatever. Cassandra died, so Ellen's life force jumped back into Ellen's body. Or, what remains of it, actually. You should have seen her. I managed to get a peek of her out of my window before they drove off. She's literally a sandman. It's like looking at some fucked-up stop animation in a Christmas special."

"Huh, I didn't know _that_ would happen."

"So you admit it, then? You killed Cassandra?"

Julius' leg started to jump up and down in a nervous fit. "It wasn't my fault. She was… she was gonna out me, I couldn't let that happen!"

"Ah, so _that_ was why you took such a liking to her. She was the best of both worlds, eh? Pretty human face, sexy animal naughty bits." Barnaby sat down and crossed his arms, squinting at Julius with a disappointed smirk on his face. "You stupid son of a bitch. Hell, what am I saying? I'm the stupid one, leaving her in your care." Julius frowned at the man with a childish look of apology. "Save it, Julius, I'm not mad at you for running off or killing our prized creation. I'm just glad to have you back. A lot's changed while you were gone, believe it or not."

"What do you mean?"

"You're all I have left, you and Ruuxa, actually. She won't leave, and I don't know why."

"You're kidding, right?" Julius was surprised to hear this news. "Where is everyone else?"

"Well… Victor bailed Athena out of jail, and the two of them hunted us down to retrieve Jacob Carson from Sanguine. Victor took Jacob's body and Sanguine. I don't know where my father is, to be honest, and I'm worried sick about him. I swear I remember hearing them tossing around the idea of giving him a taste of his own medicine while they had me tied up. Victor's probably hanging him up over his mantle whipping him to death."

"They tied you up?"

Barnaby just smiled and chuckled at his lion tamer. "Just imagine, Julius, if you were here for this. You could have saved me from those _vultures_ that destroyed my circus. My family. My life. Victor Carson took everything from me. My mother, my father, my… Lura."

"What about Lura? She's on their side?"

Barnaby looked perplexed, never even entertaining the thought that there were sides involved in this. "I don't know, but I'm sure she's with them now. She… came to a bit of a crossroads as well. Parker Redford, your little protégé?" Julius nodded, remembering the few moments he spent with the young farm boy. "He's our notorious Birdman. He killed Jumpin' Jack and Diego. And he also happens to be Lura's son. She strangled him to put him out of his misery only for me to tell her the truth moments later."

Julius didn't exactly know what to say. "Geez, I really did miss a lot."

"So that's it. The Barnaby Traveling Circus is no more. We've got nobody. We've got a mystic shaman priestess and a lion tamer who's into bestiality. That's about it. No psychic. No acrobat. No clowns. Everyone's gone but us."

"Aw come on, Barnaby, we can still make something work. And we still have a handful of other performers left. And what about that animal hybrid you wanted to make? I didn't risk my ass stealing two animals from the Bronx Zoo for nothing!"

"No, forget that dumb idea. There's no point."

"Hey!" Julius exclaimed, getting up from the bed and standing straight. "Since when is Charles Barnaby a quitter? You would do literally anything to keep this circus alive!"

"You don't understand, Julius. It's personal now. That piece-of-shit-mayor turned my own family against me. And now he's probably torturing my father as we speak. I can't move on from this. I'm done." Barnaby covered his eyes with his hand, not wanting Julius to see the water forming in them. "Could you please excuse yourself, Julius? I really just need some time to myself." Julius remained still, not ready to give up on his pep talk. "_NOW_, Julius!" Finally he listened and left.

* * *

><p>Lura woke up startled, rising up and gasping for air. It was as if she just experienced a horrific nightmare, but she didn't. In fact, she didn't even dream. She just remembered blackness while she slept. When she woke up and entered the real world, the nightmare continued.<p>

"Are you alright, darling?" asked Athena, who was sitting at the foot of the bed waiting for Lura to wake up.

"Where am I?" Lura asked, looking around at the unfamiliar walls and photos and furniture.

"We're at the Carson residence. They're letting us stay with them for as long as we need. Neither of us have had a home outside of that train for years. It will take us a while to find places to live. I insisted that Victor and Ellen needed time to mourn in private, but they refused to kick us out. They're calling us family. Isn't that adorable?"

"How long have I been asleep?"

"Almost two days. Well, give or take. You were practically a zombie when I found you in that dungeon, with Parker's body draped over you. It was almost poetic, like Michelangelo's _Pieta_."

Hearing Parker's name broke her heart. Lura just put her head in her hands and waited for the tears to arrive any second.

"I'm sorry, dear. I shouldn't bring it up."

"No, no, it's fine. I have to face the truth at some point." She looked at the older woman with those accusatory eyes, and Athena knew what she was going to ask next. "Why didn't you tell me it was him? You came to me and you told me my son was alive. Why didn't you tell me it was Parker then?"

"To be quite honest, Lura, I had no idea. I just sensed David's presence around the same time Parker joined the circus. I couldn't have possibly known that they were one in the same. My powers simply don't work like that, I'm afraid."

"You tell me all the time that you're able to figure out someone's entire life story just by looking at them. You didn't see me cradling him when you looked at him? You didn't see how Sanguine abused him when you looked at him?"

Athena felt absolutely horrible, as if all of this could have been prevented if she had better clarity. "No, I swear, I didn't. Some people are able to repress certain parts of their past. Parker clearly had a very difficult one, and he most likely blocked things out, things that I wouldn't have been able to see."

"I want to see it all, Athena. I want to know the entire truth. I'm sure Barnaby was truthful in what he told me so far, but I need the whole story. From the minute he ripped David from my hands to the minute my hands took the life out of him."

Athena rubbed Lura's knee and contemplated. "Well, there is something we could try for that. I've never done it before, but there's this technique I've heard of called the _ex memoria_."

"What's that?"

"It allows one to fully experience another's life story. I would meditate, focusing on Parker's past. Only very talented psychics have claimed to succeed in the practice, but I could give it a try. It will enable me to relive all of Parker's life, from beginning to end, as if I were an outsider observing everything he did."

Lura scratched her arm where she felt an itch. "You up for it?"

* * *

><p>Julius came knocking on Barnaby's office door several hours later. "Not now," Barnaby groaned, not quite ready to have his alone time end. But Julius didn't listen and he barged in anyway. "For fuck's sake, can't you leave me alone?"<p>

"It's finished," Julius said ecstatically. Barnaby reeled back as he noticed the blood and guts all over the lion tamer's face and clothing. That, coupled with the cheerful grin on his face, made him look like he just finished a murder spree.

"What's finished?"

"The chimaera, you dumbass. Ruuxa and I, we spent all afternoon putting it together for you."

"What? You… you did it already? Why?"

"To cheer you up! And get this, Ruuxa already had a life handy to exchange into it. This monster is alive, Barnaby. Fucking alive, I tell you!"

Barnaby was very confused, but moments later he was forced to visit the animal cages and found a horrifying creature housed in one of them. It possessed the heads of all three beasts: the wolf in the middle, and a cat on either side, with the lion on the left and the leopard on the right. The torso was lupine. The front legs belonged to the lion, the thick, muscular paws standing mightily. The leopard's hind legs were attached to the back, slim and lean and ready to pounce at a moment's notice. All three of their tails were attached to the rear, in the same order aligned with their heads.

"This is… crazy." That was all that the ringmaster could utter upon witnessing the monster in front of him.

"It's more than crazy, Mr. Barnaby," said Ruuxa, appearing almost out of nowhere. "It's a miracle, a true testament to my power over nature. You thought your little mermaid was a feat? Try the power of three ferocious beasts combined into one. I'm impressed in your selection, these three are quite the trio."

"I can't believe you did this, Ruuxa. Thank you." Barnaby shook the woman's hand eagerly. "I just don't know what we're going to do with it, seeing as there's no longer a show to present it at."

"Oh, enough, Barnaby!" shouted Julius, nudging his boss roughly. "If our run is over, then we might as well go out with a bang. Let's do one more final show, present this behemoth to the masses, make the crowd go wild. What do you say?"

Barnaby wasn't sure at first, but Julius' enthusiasm caused his lips to slowly curl into an approving smile. The two men started to laugh and cheer and high-five and chant as they realized the potential they had with this creature.

"Say, I have an idea," said Ruuxa, interrupting their little moment. "Why don't you name this thing… Marty?"

Charles quickly snapped his head. "Excuse me?"

"Well I just figured it's a fitting name, considering it's his soul."

Barnaby knew exactly what Ruuxa was saying, but he wanted her to be more explicit. She was toying with him, dangling the bait right over his head. But he wanted her to bring the bait all the way down to his face so he could attack her when she least expected it. "What do you mean?"

"Victor Carson and I had a little agreement before he left here the other night. You see, he shot your father several times, but miraculously he didn't die. I ran into Mayor Carson just before I arrived to rescue you from your duct-tape-imprisonment. We exchanged words and we made a deal. He paid me _quite_ a sum of money to take the life out of Marty and do something with it to spite you. And I figured putting his life into a bizarre creature such as this would be a perfect way to do it!"

Barnaby was seeing red. "You bitch. You had me thinking you were on my side!" He even surprised himself when he mentioned the apparent sides.

"I have to go. I need to see a doctor about some nasal reconstruction." She stepped closer to him, no longer afraid of his power, mostly because he longer possessed any. "I'll send you the medical bills, you bastard." She spit on his shoes and stormed out, flipping him the bird as she left the circus train for good.

"Um… what the hell just happened?" asked Julius, still not fully caught up on what went down on Halloween night.

* * *

><p>Lura dimmed the lights and sat down on the bed, watching closely as the psychic sat down on the carpet, legs crossed and hands resting on her knees. She focused all of her concentration on Parker Redford, but after about twenty minutes, it was obvious that it wasn't working.<p>

"I'm sorry, my dear. I guess I'm not powerful enough to do it."

"What if… what if I did it with you? Like, if we held hands. You might be able to get a reading on David from my memories, or something?" Lura seemed eager and anxious to learn more about her son's past. Athena could sense how unhinged the girl was slowly becoming, but she hid her sorrow for Lura behind a smile.

"Of course, Lura, that sounds like it just might work!" She realized she was a bit too optimistic in her exaggeration, but she patted the floor in front of her to guide the woman down. Lura joined her and they grabbed one another's hands. Then they closed their eyes and concentrated. "Think only about David, Lura. I'm sure it's the last thing you want to do right now, but you need to hone in on those scarce memories that are still intact."

Before Athena finished that sentence, Lura quickly transported herself back into that funhouse mirror, when she looked at her shattered reflection and heard her baby cooing out in the distance. She recalled immediately how it all flashed before her eyes like a movie projector. Athena started to tremble as the visions emerged bright and clearly in her mind. The older woman opened her eyes and let go of Lura's hands, stunned by the overload of information she just received. "Lura, are you alright?" But Lura didn't respond. She remained seated with her eyes closed. "My gosh, I think you're doing it. You're experiencing Parker's life, aren't you?" Again, Lura didn't respond. Athena took her lack of an answer as a yes.

But Athena was wrong. Lura wasn't seeing visions of Parker's past, but rather Parker. They were surrounded by utter darkness, just the two of them, standing face to face. "Parker," she said, noticing her voice tremble and quiver in a mixture of both grief and joy.

"Hi… _mom_." She ran over to him and wrapped her arms around him, eerily similar to the way she held him after she strangled the life out of him and learned the truth about his identity. She knew this wasn't real, that this was just her imagination running wild. Parker was dead. This was just some conjured representation of him. But he felt so very real.

"I… I don't know what to say, to be honest," Lura noted as she broke away from the hug. "It's not like I expected to ever see you again."

"I'm ready to tell you anything you want. That's why we're here, isn't it?" She nodded in agreement.

"Um, okay. I guess I'll just dive right into it, then. Who knows how long this thing lasts. So… how did you manage to become the only child to escape Sanguine's lair?" Lura remembered asking Barnaby that night after sex why he had to kill a decoy baby to make her think it was David, and how he responded that David was already gone by the time their plan was in motion.

"One of Sanguine's clowns, do you remember a guy named Spunky?"

"Of course I do!" As she answered, she realized that she only knew him for a brief period of time, just when she arrived. And now that she thought about it, he left the circus right around the same time fake-David died. She just never really noticed that coincidence because she was too busy grieving the loss of the son that wasn't really dead.

"Sanguine treated the guy like shit, apparently. Spunky would always ask to help out with the abuse every time a new kid came along, but Sanguine always refused. Just around the time I was around, Spunky decided to spite Sanguine by kidnapping all of his victims, which included me and some other boy a few years older named Ben. We disappeared without a trace. No one from the circus ever managed to find us. We eventually found an abandoned farm and took refuge there, and after a while we just called it home. I didn't know any better, and I certainly don't remember what happened to me in that dungeon when I was a baby, so to Ben and I, Spunky was our dad. Then things took a turn for the worse. He started to beat us for practically no reason at all. He homeschooled us, and if we got the answer wrong we would get his belt on our bare asses fifteen times. I started to hate him. We both did."

Lura was heartbroken hearing this.

"I already told you what happened to my brother. Ben was threatening to take me away and escape his abuse, and he and Spunky got in a big fight. Spunky pushed him down the stairs, and a few hours later, Ben was dead. Like I told you before, he started to feel bad about what he did to Ben and wasn't so rough on me anymore. Because of that I started to gain a little more freedom and I started taking night classes, which he didn't approve of at all. That in turn caused him to be even rougher on me. And then I bashed his head in. A few hours later I found my self unknowingly hiding in my mother's boudoir upon the Barnaby Traveling Circus, seeking revenge on the men who brought me to live this hell of a life."

"Parker… I'm so sorry. But you have to listen to me, okay? Listen to mama." Hearing that made Parker smile. Finally he was able to match a face to the word, that word that he longed to say for his entire life. She grabbed his face and brought it right up to hers so that their foreheads touched. "Spunky and Sanguine may have hurt you in the past, but all of that was because of one man: Charles Barnaby. He took you from me. He brought you to this circus. He brought you and I both into this hell." He nodded to show he understood. "And I _promise_ you… I _promise_ that I will make sure he suffers an even worse hell for this. He cannot get away with killing my son. Okay?"

"I love you, mama," Parker was bawling his eyes out at this point, and the two of them embraced again, this time not over his death or their shared loss of one another, but this time, because of nothing but love and reunion.

And just like that, the vision faded. Lura opened her eyes and found herself sitting on the bedroom floor again, with Athena plopped on the mattress anxiously waiting for her return into consciousness.

"Well? How was it? Did you experience his whole life story?"

Lura got up and sat down next to her. "Oddly enough… I did. I saw my boy. And he told me what I needed to know." They smiled at each other, but Lura's smile quickly turned into a sour frown. "Ugh, is it just me, or is it really stuffy in here? You didn't pass gas, did you, Athena?"

"Heavens no! Why would you accuse me of such a thing! Old women don't fart. And even if I did, I probably wouldn't have remembered doing so!" Athena chuckled at her own joke, but when she saw Lura become physically green, she stopped. "Are you alright, Lura?"

"No, I feel like I'm going to pass out or something." She then hopped off the bed and jetted into the adjoined bathroom. Athena heard retching and cringed at the sound. She gave her a few minutes to settle down and get it all up, but then she heard a loud thud. "Lura, what's wrong, honey?" Athena waltzed over to the bathroom and gasped once she opened the door. Lura must have passed out and hit her head on the tub. She was lying on the floor with a bruise forming on her forehead. "Lura! Lura! Oh heavens no! I'll be back in one second, I'm going to get Victor! Don't move!"

Athena slapped herself on the side of the head after realizing she told an unconscious person not to move.


	11. Ashes to Ashes

There was a searing pain coursing through Lura's head, and it hurt to open her eyes. But once she did she immediately felt like closing them again. The harsh fluorescent lights in the hospital forced her to squint at first; once her pupils adjusted she realized where she was. Athena was sitting in a chair on the left side of the bed, and Victor was standing against the wall just a few feet away. Athena noticed that she was awake and motioned for Victor to pay attention. They both calmly gathered around her.

"What's going on? Why are we in a hospital? Why am _I _in a hospital?"

"You had a nasty fall," said Athena. "Hit your head right on the lip of the tub." _That explains the head pain_, Lura thought to herself. Even thinking to herself made her brain throb violently against the confines of her skull. "Do you know who we are?"

"Yes, of course I do. Athena and Victor Carson."

"Yes! Very good! At least you've retained your memory."

"Yeah, well, maybe that isn't such a good thing."

Seconds later a woman walked into the room carrying a clipboard. "I see someone finally woke up," she stated with a luminous smile on her face. _Damn_, Lura thought. _How does someone get perfect white teeth like that?_ "You probably don't remember me, do you?"

"You're… my doctor?" Lura took an educated guess based on her attire and demeanor.

"That's right. I have all of your test results back, and you both seem to be perfectly fine. Lura, I advise you to stay here for the night. You can leave tomorrow morning."

Lura nodded her head to show that she understood, but quickly stopped and uttered, "Hang on, who did you mean by _you both_?"

The doctor swung back around and gave Lura a perplexed look. She then looked at Athena and Victor, and Athena and Victor shared a glance of confusion between the two of them. "Lura, you're pregnant. We conducted an ultrasound and everything seemed to be in order. You're both fine."

Lura simply couldn't respond. She just stared at the woman blankly with her jaw open wide. "Uh, thank you, doctor, for all your help," replied Victor, shaking her hand and getting her to leave the room. He turned back to look at Athena, and the woman nudged her head to tell him to leave as well. He grasped the signal and stood out in the hallway.

"Lura, honey… talk to me. What's wrong?"

"I… I don't know. It's too early to take a paternity test, right?"

"What? You mean it isn't Charles' baby?"

Lura's memory certainly wasn't gone, as she quickly brought back the memory of that night she tried to make Barnaby jealous by sleeping with Parker. "It… it might be my baby's baby…"

* * *

><p>Athena decided to stay with Lura that night in the hospital and told Victor to go home to be with Ellen. He arrived home at ten to midnight, and ashen Ellen was still up, sitting by the fireplace reading a book.<p>

"You're smudging the pages," Victor whined as he walked in and noticed the pages she had read were stained black from her fingers.

"Sorry," Ellen cautiously put the book down on the side table. "How is she?"

"Not great," Victor admitted, taking a seat opposite her in the other chair. "She's fine. But apparently she's pregnant, and the father can be one of two people: Barnaby or her own son."

"Holy shit, that's fucked up," Ellen said. "That's _really_ fucked up."  
>"That coming from a woman who's literally made of ashes," Victor retorted. He got up and headed over to the bar in the dining room. "I'm gonna fix myself a martini, you want one?"<p>

"I don't think I can. I'd probably soak away."

"Oh, right." Victor made his drink and returned back to his seat.

Ellen waited for him to finish his first sip before speaking up. "I can't even begin to tell you how horrible I feel, Victor."

The fact that she said something remotely kind to him made Victor nearly spit out his drink. "Excuse me? Feel bad about what, Ellen?"

"It's taken Jacob's death and my own to realize how good of a guy you really are."

He chuckled and glugged down half of the contents of the martini glass. "Nice, Ellen. I almost thought you were being genuinely generous for a goddamn second." He raised his glass up in the air. "Cheers to you and your lame attempt at that. You never did have a good poker face."

"I _am_ being genuinely generous, Victor. Look at everything you did to get to the bottom of Jacob's disappearance. Look at how sweet you're being to this Lura girl. You know she's just as much a victim of Barnaby's torment as you are. And you're caring for her: letting her stay here, taking her to the hospital. You are a good guy, Victor Carson. I, on the other hand, am an evil, manipulative bitch." Victor meanwhile gulped down the remainder of his martini. He desperately wanted to get up to make himself another one, but he figured Ellen was in the middle of a moment and he didn't want to disturb her. After all, he was _such_ a good guy. "I nearly destroyed your life, and then I nearly destroyed it again."

"Ah, we're back on the whole plane thing, aren't we?"

"Listen, Victor. You and I both know that wasn't my idea. It was my father's. There was no way you were going to win that re-election. Everyone in this goddamn city hates you. We were losing our sponsors and political action committees by the day, and that all meant daddy was losing money." Victor suddenly felt the martini come back up in a sickened reaction to hearing her say the word _daddy_. He absolutely hated his father-in-law, Francis Huckabee (the second). No, he didn't just hate him. Hate, believe it or not, wasn't a strong enough word. He _loathed_ him. He practically counted down the days to his death. As a matter of fact, he did for a brief time. Francis had a heart attack a few years ago, and all during his recovery Victor kept a tally in his ledger for each day that passed with him still alive. _Who is she kidding?_ Victor thought to himself. _I'm not a good guy._

Ellen continued. "He was the mastermind behind all of it, Victor. You and I both know it. But I'm not trying to absolve myself of the guilt. I listened to him, and I made you do it."

Victor rubbed the bridge of his nose as he flashed back to the moment in time when he arranged for his campaign opponent, Marcus Buchanan, to die in a horrific plane accident. He hired a colleague of the Huckabee family, Duncan Manchester, to fly the private plane and risk his own life should it come to that. A sudden engine failure over the Atlantic while Buchanan and his mistress were on their way back from a secret Caribbean vacation and just like that, the mayor's seat was destined to be his.

"I thought I was better than you because of my privileged background, because my daddy had money, because I spent my summers riding horses across our estate and playing croquet with his clients' daughters, because he told me that success isn't something a Huckabee strives for, it's something that a Huckabee is simply given." Victor actually smiled at that last part, knowing that Francis made sure to say that at least once at every Huckabee family gala. "I do love you, Victor. You do know that, right?"

"Of course I know that. I loved you, too. But our love was… _clouded_ by other things." Barnaby was a light wispy cloud compared to the thunderhead that was Francis.

Ellen frowned upon hearing him say that. There was one part of that sentence that she didn't approve of. "You _loved_ me? As in, past tense?"

"Ell, come on. You just admitted that you're a manipulative bitch. You know I wholeheartedly agree with that. I was madly in love with you, so much that I would do absolutely anything for you. And I did. And I still do. Except now I do things out of fear instead of love. I fear that you'll pack up and take Jacob from me. I fear that you'll expose all our dirty little secrets and frame me for everything. Oh, wait," he said with a sarcastic shift in tone. "You already tried to do that. How could I possibly still love someone who would do that? You were willing to put me behind bars so you could raise Jacob on your own. You don't need to pay for a divorce if you simply incarcerate me."

"Stop it, Victor. I never would have divorced you."

"Oh cut the bullshit, Ellen. Stop pretending like you're still in love with me. Stop making me look like the bad guy!"

"Victor, you're not listening to me!" she screamed. Victor wasn't prepared for that and gave her the opportunity to finish. "I realize my mistakes now. I treated you like garbage, but my eyes have been opened ever since I came back. Seeing you being the caring, protective, loving man you are is making me fall in love with you all over again."

"So what are you saying here, Ell? You want to see if we can get this marriage working again?" Victor swore he started off that question rhetorically, but by the end he was almost certain he wanted an actual answer. Deep down this was what he always wanted: a chance for Ellen to turn things around and fall back in love with him, and for them to love each other like they used to, before the in-law drama and the political hassles and the murder conspiracies.

"I don't know," she admitted, sounding teary-eyed, although no physical tears were forming. "I mean, are you just supposed to walk me around town like this? Does my father even know I died? Did you even tell my family?" Victor remained silent. A full martini glass would have allowed him to sip instead of answering the question. Instead of being outraged, she just laughed.

"Can we put this on the back burner for just a minute, Ellen? There's something more pressing at hand that we have yet to discuss."

"What's that?"

"We have two bodies on our hands: our son's and that psycho clown's. We need to figure out what we're going to do with them. The garage is starting to smell horrible."

* * *

><p>"I could kill you right now, Julius," grunted an angry Barnaby as he stared at the beast from outside of the cage.<p>

"How was I supposed to know it was gonna be your father's life force?" Julius readily defended himself, but then quickly realized how childish he sounded. "I mean, I'm sorry, Barnaby. I was just trying to help."

And not a split second later, Barnaby perked his head up with an idea. "We simply have to kill it!" Julius wasn't exactly following at first, and it showed in his facial expressions. The ringmaster rolled his eyes and prepared an explanation. "When you killed Cassandra, the life force inside her jumped back into Ellen Carson's body. The exchange is reversed when the new being dies." Barnaby excitedly grabbed onto the bars of the cage and stuck his nose inside of it, not even remotely concerned that the three-headed monster could easily tear his face skin off. "All we have to do is put a bullet through this monster's heart, and my father will be brought back to life."

"But what about the show? We created this thing to gain our audience back. Without it, we're fucked."

"We'll figure something else out, Julius! But for right now, all I care about is getting Marty back here. We'll lose the hybrid animal, but at least we'll get a clown out of it. Go into my office and get my gun. You remember where it is, right?" Julius nodded and left, while Barnaby stood there leaning against the cage, staring at the three-beasts-in-one and trying to envision his father's face in any one of theirs.

A few minutes later, Julius came back empty handed. Barnaby raised his hands to ask where his gun was, but the lion tamer just shook his head. "Did you move it?" Barnaby instantly got worried and pushed the man out of his way as he sprinted towards his office. He retrieved his safe in his closet, punched in nine two one six, and opened it up. It was empty. Not a single thing was in there. Ruuxa was the last person to be in that safe, when she paid herself before untying him on Halloween night. She must have not only taken every penny he had, but also his gun.

"Are you _FUCKING KIDDING ME!_" Barnaby was so outraged that he lifted the safe and chucked it at the window, sending shards of glass in every direction. Julius, meanwhile, stood a considerable distance outside of the room in the hallway and watched the man wreak havoc.

* * *

><p>Ellen stood out on the porch and felt the harsh breeze push into her. The wind managed to get through the tiny cracks of the congealed ashes that made up her composition, and she could actually feel it going through her. She looked up at the sky and noticed a very bleak sky overhead. <em>That's odd, I don't remember hearing it was going to rain this evening.<em> She continued to gaze up at the sky until she heard someone cough to her right. She looked over and saw Ruuxa walking up the steps to her house, joining her on the porch. She had a bandage over her nose, showing that her appointment with the nasal surgeon was a success.

"Something tells me that I already know why you summoned me."

"You do?"

Ruuxa nodded and took the woman's ashen hands. "It's very rare to find a case of self-sacrifice." Ellen gulped as she realized what she was about to do.

"Will you pass on a message to Victor for me?"

"Absolutely, dear."

"Tell him that I really do love him. Tell him that he's made me a better person more in the past few days than in our entire time together. Tell him that I know this marriage can no longer work out, which is why I'm choosing this as the best option. Tell him that he deserves happiness and deserves to be with someone who puts him first just like he does with everyone else. And tell Jacob that I love him and that I wish I could be there to see him."

Ruuxa was nearly brought to tears. "I'll pass it along. Come here." Ruuxa brought the woman in for a hug. "Any last words?"

"Thank you, for doing this for my family." And with that, Ellen lost her life force once again, this time for good. Ruuxa put her arms to her sides, and the pile of ashes that once made up the figure of Ellen Carson started to slowly scatter away in the wind. Once all of Ellen was gone, Ruuxa rang the doorbell to be greeted by Victor a few moments later.

"Oh, hi. What are you doing here?"

She still had tears in her eyes. "You are a very lucky man, Victor Carson. Are you aware of that?" He gave her a perplexed look and she couldn't help but smile. "I have a message to pass on from Ellen."

"What do you mean? Where is she? She just came outside here a few minutes ago."

"Ellen's gone, Victor. I need you to tell me where Jacob's body is."

They had just buried the boy in the backyard just a few hours ago. It was the act of burying him for good that made Ellen realize that her son was truly gone. She had to do something, and what better way to do something than to give her son life again, her own life, to be specific.

Victor didn't even bother to ask any questions. He grabbed his shovel and dug up the same hole that he just put his son in earlier that day. A few minutes later he got most of the dirt out of the way and he pulled his son's decaying body out from under it. Ruuxa then knelt down on the grass next to him, held his hands, and within a matter of seconds, she managed to successfully put Ellen's life inside his.

* * *

><p>Lura was in the upstairs guest room, lying in bed and crying, realizing her life was turning to shambles. But she heard commotion coming from outside and it forced her to get up and look out the window. There she saw Victor shouting in joy as he held Jacob—an alive Jacob—in his arms. For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Lura smiled. The scene in front of her was so moving that she almost forgot about her own life drama for a moment and just cared about how happy Victor and Jacob must be now. There was absolutely nothing stopping her from killing some random person on the street and having Ruuxa put that life force into Parker so that she could have her son back. But deep down she really didn't want to do that. Especially not now that there was at least a fifty percent chance that she was carrying his child.<p>

* * *

><p>Still in his bout of anger, Barnaby decided once and for all to end the beast. "Barnaby, don't you think you should maybe find another gun and do it that way?" suggested Julius, still standing far away.<p>

"Shut the fuck up, Julius. Don't you dare get in my way now." He grabbed his walled and left the train, walking in any general direction. Julius was worried that he had become fully unhinged. He spent the next few minutes sitting by the beast's cage and trying to comfort the animal. That, however, proved to be a horrible idea. The minute he stuck his hand inside, the lion immediately snapped at him.

Some time later, Barnaby returned with a tank of gasoline and a book of matches. "Jesus Christ, man!" exclaimed Julius. "You're gonna burn the animal to death?"

"It's the only way I see fit, Julius. A bit of poetic inspiration struck me while I was defenestrating my safe. Think of the phoenix. From this tri-headed animal's ashes, a new life will emerge: my father's. Now… get the fuck out of my way."

Julius didn't even bother arguing; he could tell there was some severe craziness in Barnaby's eyes. He got up and walked back onto the train, and watched Barnaby from there. His boss started dumping the fluid all around the border of the cage. The animal snarled and followed him around the perimeter. Barnaby then walked over to the meat crate and rubbed the gasoline tank with a slab of raw chicken. Once it was all lathered up in the scent and taste of delicious lion/wolf/leopard dinner, he tossed the tank into the cage. The lion caught it first, puncturing the plastic lining with its teeth. The other two heads started to snap at it as well, and as they fought for dominance over it, the fluid continued to splash all over the cage and their body.

Barnaby stood back, lit a match, recited a quick prayer, and tossed it into the cage. That was, however, before Julius came sprinting back outside at the last second to stop him. Julius intended on knocking the match out of his hand, but he was too late. As Barnaby tossed the match, Julius bumped into him, sending the ringmaster forward and into the wall of the cage.

What happened next seemed like a blur to Julius. He remembered scurrying away from the blast of fire that erupted and just running to the safe haven that was the circus train. He looked back and heard both the monster and Barnaby scream for help as the flames engulfed them. After contemplating for a few seconds, Julius ran back outside and carefully stepped into the blaze to grab his boss out from the wreck. Once he was sure Barnaby was out, he ran back inside to grab a fire extinguisher. It didn't do much at first, but after a few minutes, the fire finally subsided.

The smell was unbearable. _Nothing worse than the combined smell of burning flesh from a human, lion, leopard, and wolf_, Julius thought to himself.


	12. Storm Surge

"Well shit," Athena grunted as she looked at the pathetic man tied up in front of her. "How the hell did he come back to life?"

"Well, I'm assuming the exchange was reversed. Ruuxa told me that she put Marty's life into another one of Barnaby's creations. So that monster must have died. And now… here we are." Victor and Athena stood with crossed arms over Sanguine, who was now perfectly alive, though severely wounded from the multiple bullets that he took on Halloween night. He was still bound and gagged, fortunately. Athena had a vision that he was no longer dead, and so the two of them went to check it out for themselves.

"You know what this means," suggested Athena. Victor looked at her, unsure of the answer. "If Barnaby was the one who killed that beast, he did it intentionally to get his father back. He knows we have Sanguine. He's probably on his way to retrieve him and likely to put an end to you, Victor. I can see it happening right now."

"As if I'd let that happen." He forcefully slammed the trunk door closed and picked the appropriate key ring off the hook on the garage wall. "Go. Take him anywhere. Just get him away from here."

"You're certain about this, Victor?"

"Yes. I'll stay here and make sure Lura and Jacob are safe. If Barnaby does come back, I'll be well protected. He doesn't even have his gun anymore." They both smiled as they remembered how swiftly that all worked out. "You just make sure Sanguine is as far away as possible, and leave no trail. It's going to start raining soon. The weatherman called it a torrential downpour. Will you be alright?"

"Hey, I'd rather drive in some heavy rain than be responsible for protecting two other people." Athena took the keys and headed into the car. "Victor. Protect yourself. And protect Lura. She's become very unstable lately." He nodded and headed back into the house. Athena started the car, opened the garage door, and sped off, not sure where exactly she was going.

* * *

><p>"Barnaby, I got some painkillers for you." Julius didn't even bother knocking anymore. At this point he and Barnaby were the only two on the train anyway. It's not as if Barnaby would have to ask who it was. The ringmaster was lying on his bed and very carefully turned his head to look at the other man, but he didn't respond. Julius took that as a welcoming invitation and walked over to his bedside, popping a few pills in his hand.<p>

"More," Barnaby grunted. Julius gave him a curious look, and the ringmaster gave a tiny nod. More pills were added to the pile, and soon made their way down Barnaby's throat.

"You're sure you don't want to go to the hospital? You could die, Barnaby. These are fourth-degree burns." He looked down cautiously at Barnaby's arms. They were black. The skin was completely charred in some places; in others, actual muscle was exposed. The fire ate away at his joints the most, and his bones were visible at his elbows and shoulders.

"What did I tell you, Julius? We can't risk exposing ourselves. We were fortunate enough to leave the scene of the crime when we did. The media is going crazy over that fire I started. _Bizarre three-headed animal found charred to death_. If I waltzed into the hospital like this, they would know I was involved. Now, let's get this done and over with." Julius sighed heavily as he prepared to do what he and Barnaby discussed before he headed out to the pharmacy. He grabbed onto Barnaby's left arm with both hands, cringing at the feeling of the singed flesh, and then wedged his foot into his armpit. With a forceful pull, Barnaby's shoulder joint was snapped in two, and like that the useless limb was no longer a part of his body. He hollered in pain as Julius quickly ran over to the other side of the bed to do the same thing to the other arm. The painkillers weren't doing much to ease the pain. Fortunately there wasn't much blood since the tissue had been dead for quite some time. Barnaby looked down at either side and winced at the emptiness.

"Alright, leave me be. Go do what I've asked you to do. You have that envelope? You know where to take it?" Julius nodded his head, looking over on Barnaby's desk to see that familiar file with the word CONFIDENTIAL written on it. "And once you've taken care of that, go do that other thing. Go get Sanguine."

* * *

><p>The storm was at its worst at around eleven o'clock at night. At that point, Victor, Lura, and Jacob had just finished watching a movie together in the living room.<p>

"Alright, Jake. I think it's time for you to head off to bed." The teenager grunted and dragged himself off the couch. The father and son hugged before Jacob went upstairs, both of them relieved to be able to do that once more.

"He's a good kid," Lura commented, polishing off the last of the popcorn. "Thanks for letting me join your movie night."

"Of course, why wouldn't I? Like I said, Lura, you're part of the family now." She smiled at him and got up to get herself a drink. "You want me to get you anything?"

"That's okay, I'll join you." He followed her into the kitchen, and while she rinsed the popcorn bowl in the sink, he grabbed two Heinekens from the fridge.

"Did you forget I'm pregnant?"

"Oh shit, I did actually. I'm sorry, that was insensitive of me."

"You don't have to apologize, Victor. It was a mistake. Sometimes I wish I'd forget about it, too." Both of them found a random object to look at as the awkward moment of silence passed. "Got any coffee? I'd kill for a little late-night pick-me-up…"

"Coming right up!" Lura sat down on the kitchen stool and watched him prepare the coffee maker. "You're not nervous, are you?" he asked. She looked at him confused, not sure how to respond. "That Barnaby might come here soon? You know I'll protect you, right?"

"Actually, part of me wants him to come. I have some things I want to say to him. And then I never want to see him ever again. Just one last interaction is all I need to put this behind me for good."

"How do you take it?" Victor asked, referring to the coffee.

"I'll just take it black," she said. He gave her a mug and poured a generous amount in it. She found herself seductively sipping the drink, but she didn't know why. It was so habitual of her to drink a beverage like that whenever she was around a guy. But there was no need to do this in front of Victor… _right_

Victor was totally aware of the sexy sipping and wasn't quite sure how to go about this. Would he want to be with her sexually? Absolutely. Who wouldn't? But Victor was a gentleman. The situation was just too bizarre to even consider acting upon it. She just ended her relationship with Barnaby over unimaginable reasons, and she could very well be carrying either his child or her son's. And his wife just gave up her own life so that he could have his son back. _Too soon_ wasn't even close to describing it.

"I hate to sound like a scaredy cat, but would it be alright if you… maybe… slept in my bed tonight?" Lura couldn't believe she was just uttering those words. "Oh shit, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. Your wife just died, and then came back to life, and then died again…"

"Lura." He said her name so sternly that she felt as if she was being punished. "Are you asking if you want me to sleep with you, or _sleep_ with you?"

She bit her lip, afraid of revealing the correct answer. He then put down his coffee mug, walked over to her, and kissed her.

"Bedroom. Now." Lura managed to hiss out those words before Victor excitedly picked her up and carried her upstairs.

* * *

><p>"Am I a whore?" Lura asked, looking blankly up at the ceiling as Victor nestled his face onto her chest.<p>

"Is this pillow talk?" She smacked him lightly on the back of the head.

"I'm serious. I mean, I did work in a brothel because it was the only thing I was good at. And I really only fell in love with Barnaby because he was good in the sack. Looking back now I wish I never worked at that place. I never would've met Barnaby and I never would've gotten myself in this mess."

"Yes, but then you also never would've ended up here," Victor said, picking up his head to stare into her eyes. His hand found hers and they interlocked fingers.

"I feel so safe with you," she whispered. "No man has ever made me feel that way before."

"No woman has ever told me that before." The two of them cuddled some more as the lightning and thunder raged on outside. "Lura, there's a difference between what you used to do and what we just did. We were making love, it was more than just sex."

"I honestly don't think I've experienced that before. Not even with Barnaby. He was always so visceral."

Suddenly they heard glass shattering downstairs. Lura was startled immediately and clenched onto Victor. "It's him, I know it is. Leave it to Charles Barnaby to attack us right after I've fucked another man." Even Lura herself was surprised that she was able to make light of that situation.

"Shh, I doubt that was Barnaby. Stay right here. I'll be right back." Victor got out of bed, put on some boxers and a robe, and found one of his golf clubs in his closet. Lura got dressed while he was still in the room and then hid under the covers once he left.

Victor slowly crept his way down the stairs, golf club in hand, and immediately noticed that one of his back windows was shattered. The wind from the storm howled into the room, and papers started flying all around, getting soaked by the incoming rain. Victor sighed out of relief, assuming some rock or other flying object crashed in from the storm currents. He scuffled over to the window to assess the damage, not even noticing the hooded figure standing right outside.

Julius took this as the time to strike and crashed his whole body into the window, sending Victor backwards.

Lura, upstairs, heard the second shattering sound and hurried over to the door so she could hear what the commotion was all about.

"Where is Sanguine? Where is Sanguine? Where is Sanguine?" Julius repeated the question over and over again, kicking Victor each time he asked it. The mayor managed to get up and retrieve his golf club, while Julius found some glass shards and wielded them in his hands like knives.

"Barnaby sent you, didn't he?" Victor looked at the intruder, whose face was now exposed as the hood fell back during their scuffle. He wasn't quite sure if he ever remembered seeing this man before. He didn't see him on Halloween night. Maybe he saw him the night Barnaby gave him Ellen's body. Regardless he was definitely here on Barnaby's behalf in order to retrieve his father. "It's a shame the poor bastard couldn't come do it himself. What is he, too afraid?"

"No. He physically can't do this himself."

"And why is that?"

"I'm not here to play twenty questions, man! I'm just here to get the clown. Where is he?"

"Let's think about this for a minute. You want me to tell you where the clown is, and if I don't, you're going to stab me to death with glass shards." Julius didn't know how to answer him, so he just continued to stare at him menacingly, glass in hand. "Isn't that a bit foolish? I'm the only one who knows where he is. You need to keep me alive, my friend."

"Bullshit. I know you're not alone here. Lura's here, too, isn't she?"

Lura heard her name from upstairs and covered her mouth with her hand to stifle her scream. _Victor you better lie_, she silently told herself. _If you tell him I'm here, we're both dead._

"No, she isn't." Without a warning, Julius came slashing at Victor and sliced his arm. While Victor reacted sharply to the pain, the lion tamer knocked the golf club out of his hand and forced the mayor onto the floor. Hearing Victor scream caused Lura to panic and she rushed down the hall to Jacob's room. The boy was sleeping but she shook him awake, careful not to startle him too much and cause him to wake up loudly.

"Jacob, come with me."

"What's going on?" Before she could even reply, the power went out.

* * *

><p>The rain was getting worse and worse. Athena thought it would be a rough storm, but she didn't imagine anything like this. The lightning flashed nearly every ten seconds, and it still startled her every single time. She tuned to a decent radio station and blasted it as loud as she could to drown out the booming thunder surrounding her.<p>

By midnight the rain was hitting so hard that the windshield wipers were doing absolutely nothing to help clear her line of vision. She eventually found a service station on the side of the road and parked there for a while until the rain started to die down. In the interim she took a nap.

* * *

><p>About fifteen minutes later, Lura heard footsteps climbing the stairs. <em>Oh God please be Victor. Please tell me he heroically killed that bastard. Please tell me he's headed up here so we can continue cuddling the night away.<em> She peeked her head out into the hallway and nearly jumped when she saw Victor's face poke out from the stairwell. "Jesus, you asshole, you nearly gave me a heart attack!" She tiptoed over to him, but stopped instantly when she got there and realized he still hadn't moved. Then Julius revealed himself at the top of the stairs, hiding behind Victor's unconscious—or was it dead—body like a ventriloquist. Lura screamed and did what instinct told her to do: kick Julius square in the gut. The lion tamer fumbled over and lost his footing, and as a result he went tumbling down the stairs.

Lura couldn't believe how responsive she was in this scenario. She always expected herself to be the dumb blonde that ended up tripping or running into a dead end when the killer came around in the horror movie. But surprisingly, she was acting appropriately. The first thing she did after kicking Julius down the staircase was drag Victor into Jacob's room, making sure Julius couldn't tell which room she was going into. She locked the door behind them and shoved Jacob's dresser in its way. After all of that effort she was admittedly exhausted.

Jacob, meanwhile, was kneeling down at his father's side, panicked the minute he saw Lura dragging him into the room. "Is he dead?" he asked frantically.

Lura shushed him and knelt beside him. Putting two fingers to Victor's throat, she patiently waited to find his pulse. "He's alive. I think Julius must've knocked him out or something." She winced as she noticed the big lump on the side of his head where he likely received a tough blow.

"What do we do? Is he trying to kill us?"

"No, Jacob, we'll be okay. We just have to stay quiet so he can't find us. He's just looking for something that isn't here. If we just give him some time to snoop around the house, he'll eventually learn that what he's looking for isn't here, and he'll leave." Her maternal instinct was kicking in and she caressed the boy's face. Jacob didn't quite know how to react to that, but he was too afraid to be worried about that at the moment.

"Well, what if he thinks that the thing he's looking for is locked in here with us? He could come breaking the door down and attack us!"

Lura's face turned pale. "Shit, I didn't think of that." How did a thirteen-year-old outsmart her?

* * *

><p>Athena woke up with a fright after hearing a loud thud. She looked out the windshield and noticed a squirrel had fallen out of the tree above her and onto the car. The little creature was just as terrified as she was, and it quickly scampered off the hood of the car and back up the tree.<p>

It was still raining, though not as bad as it had been. Athena turned the car back on and pulled out of the service station and back onto the highway.

She continued on for several miles, still driving aimlessly, when she started to see a bright light flashing in her rear view mirror. _Probably just someone's headlights_, she thought to herself, ignoring it. The thought caused her check her own dashboard to make sure her car's headlights were on. They were.

About a minute later she started to see the lights again, this time almost growing with intensity. She adjusted her mirror to see if she could get a better look at who was behind her. Except when she did, she discovered that there wasn't a single car behind her. In fact, she was the only car on the entire road. Only Athena Dwyer would be crazy enough to drive in this horrific storm at three in the morning.

Athena started to fear that she was losing it, because the light kept appearing, disappearing, and then reappearing over and over again. Yet there was nothing behind her that could possibly be creating such a light.

Then she remembered. A fellow psychic once told her that those who foresee the future see their own end as a bright light appearing in the distance. As the time draws nearer and nearer to death, the light shines brighter and brighter until it consumes their entire line of vision. Athena began to tremble. _Is this truly the end for me? How? Why can't I see the way I'm going to die? At least that way I can brace myself for it._ She assumed it would be due to hydroplaning into a tree or getting struck by lightning.

Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine managed to break free of his restraints and sneak his way into the back seat while she was taking her nap. Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine managed to find a wire coat hanger in the back seat from an old dry cleaning bag and was using it to strangle her from behind in a sneak attack. Not once did she stop to assume the possibility that Sanguine risked both of their lives in that instant, as she lost control of the vehicle entirely, being more concerned about fighting for her life than keeping her car in her lane. Athena fought as hard as she could, but Sanguine pulled at her throat with all his might. Eventually the wire started to slice into her skin, and the white light took over more and more of her vision. Before long, it all went black. The wire slipped right through her neck like a knife through butter.

* * *

><p>It was nearing five o'clock. Jacob had fallen asleep about a half hour ago on top of his father, who still hadn't come to. Lura was sitting on the bed, flipping through the books on Jacob's shelves. It was obvious that the kid was into magical mysteries a while ago, but now that he was entering his teen phase, that fad was quickly dying out. He still kept the books and comics hidden away in a drawer, as if to hide them but not permanently. She skimmed the pages, not exactly reading them, but thinking of what it would have been like to raise a son like Jacob. What would it have been like to raise a son all the way to thirteen years of age? Lura told herself that she missed that opportunity, but then she reminded herself that a new one was present. She rubbed her still flat tummy. <em>Abortion is always an option.<em> She had been repeating that word over and over again in her head ever since she found out she was pregnant. The more she repeated it, the more the word began to lose its meaning. The impact of it at first was so severe. But now she was able to think of it nonchalantly. There was no longer an effect behind it. And to Lura, that meant the action behind the word wouldn't have an effect on her. _If I survive this night_, she thought, _I'll go through with it._

She realized about twenty minutes later that they had been locked away in that room for hours now. Julius surely had to have left already. There would be no reason for him to be here for this long to look for a person. _How incredibly easy is it to find a whole human?_, she thought. _It's not like we stuffed him into a jewelry box or something._

Lura quietly got out of the bed and hopped over to the door. Moving the furniture away from the door proved to be a rather loud task, no matter how hard she tried to keep it quiet. Jacob rose after hearing the ruckus. "Where are you going?"

"It's been like four hours already. I'm going down there to see if he's gone. I'll be all right, Jacob, I can protect myself. Lock the door after I leave, okay?" The boy nodded and let her exit the bedroom. Following instructions, he locked the door the second she left and pushed the dresser back in front of it.

Lura tiptoed down the stairs, and it was in that moment that she saw a light flickering from the living room. Her heart pounded as she questioned what it could have been. It appeared to be some sort of candlelight. _Was that Julius? Is he still in here looking for Sanguine?_ Lura then realized that she wasn't carrying anything to protect herself with, no golf clubs or baseball bats or anything. Regardless she continued to stand there and stare at the light, waiting to see if it moved; if it did, that meant Julius was carrying it around to make his way through the dark.

After at least a good minute or two she learned that the light wasn't moving, so she continued her way down the stairs. She had never been more afraid of anything in her entire life, and that included the day that she watched Barnaby kill her neighbor Andy and heard him announce that he had kidnapped her son.

When she finally entered the living room, the rapid beating of her heart seemed to stop instantly. That was it, she could no longer feel her heart beating. Because it was one think to think of that horrific moment when she killed Parker, her own child. It was another thing to see his dead body in front of her. He was mounted above the fireplace, with silver duct tape holding him up by his wrists and ankles, in the same pattern he was hanging up in Sanguine's dungeon. His body was a putrid green-purple color from the decay that had taken over. About eight or nine small candles circled his body on the floor, illuminating his body on display and creating ghastly shadows upon it. There was another piece of duct tape around his forehead like a sweatband, holding it up instead of allowing gravity to keep him facing downward. She stepped closer and noticed that masking tape was used to keep his eyelids open. He was staring right at her. Staring right at his mother. Staring right at his child's mother. Staring right at his murderer.

The most chilling part, however, was the fact that someone wrote on his chest and abdomen, in what appeared to be blood: "THIS IS FROM BARNABY." She read the message countless times in her head, knowing full well its simple meaning yet still not entirely able to grasp it at the same time.

"Oh, you've noticed my little home decorating, have you?" She turned around and saw Julius appear from the shadows. He was shirtless and sweaty, having apparently just finished putting the Parker display together. "Sorry for all the tape, it was all I could find. And I mean it was _all_ I could find. I still haven't found Sanguine. This should be a fair deal now, Lura. I gave you your son back, now you give me what I'm looking for." Julius expected her to sob uncontrollably or scream in terror or cower at his creepy ultimatum. But she did none of that. She just stared at the man in front of her. "Lura, are you okay?"

"You think… you think this is some sick joke, Julius?" Lura then turned to the side and walked out of the room. She thought about what Barnaby told Julius to do. Give her Parker's body in exchange for Sanguine. As sick as Barnaby was, she doubted that he told Julius to do all this. All these theatrics. Tape him up and mount him like crucified Jesus. This was all Julius. Julius took advantage of the situation. He wanted to see her suffer.

"No, this isn't a joke," he replied, a little louder so she could hear him. "Get back here, Lura, we're not done yet."

With a blank expression still on her face, Lura wandered into the kitchen and found the biggest shard of broken glass she could find. "Okay, Julius. I'm in the kitchen." She heard his footsteps approaching and turned around, greeting him with an eerie smile. "Let's hash this out like adults, shall we?"


	13. Burning Ring of Fire

Barnaby looked around him. The tent was bustling with activity. His new acrobatic team, his new staff of clowns, some assistants tending to the animals, they were all frantically running around to prepare for the show. _It's truly amazing what one year can do_, he thought to himself. _A year ago today I was practically on my deathbed, with no parents, no arms, and no circus. Look where we are now._

Sanguine came up from behind and patted him on his right prosthetic arm. "How you doing, kid?"

"I'm… great, dad. For once, my life makes sense again. It has purpose. And I couldn't have done it without you." Sanguine felt a hug coming on and happily accepted it. "I thank God every night for bringing you back to me."

"That reminds me, it's today. We should go now before it gets too close to curtain call."

"Right, okay. Uh, Sherry!" Barnaby hollered at one of the acrobats walking past.

"Yes, Barnaby?" she replied, prancing over to him.

"You're in charge until we get back, okay? Won't be more than an hour. Make sure everything is ready to go by eight!"

"You got it, boss." She saluted him and gave him a wave as the father and son exited the tent and got in their car.

They had been driving for about twenty minutes on the highway when they made it past Exit 52 and pulled over onto the side of the road. Sanguine rushed out and helped his handicapped son get out.

"You really don't have to do that, you know. I'm perfectly capable myself." They walked over to the makeshift gravesite. Athena's portrait was posted on a nearby tree, surrounded by several wreaths. "I can't believe it's been a year."

"Me either, son. Me either."

"That damn seatbelt!" Barnaby's speech started to slur as his emotions got the better of him. As he succumbed to the grief that washed over him, Barnaby recalled what had happened a year ago. He was lying in his bed when Sanguine appeared out of nowhere, wet and bloody and all disheveled. Sanguine told him that he and Athena were driving that stormy night when she nearly ran over a raccoon and hydroplaned into a tree. Sanguine miraculously managed to survive the wreck, but Athena's head popped right off her body due to force of the impact and the tightness of her seatbelt.

"It's a true shame, son. I know we never got along in our most recent past, but I did love the hell out of that woman." Sanguine almost felt a little bad for having kept this lie up all this time. He simply couldn't tell Charles that he actually murdered Athena, it would be too heartbreaking. Fabricating a story where no one was at fault was the most cathartic way to go about it. And he had to admit, the part about loving Athena was completely accurate. They did have a great time together. _But of course she had to become an absolute bitch and ruin everything…_

"Alright, let's say our prayers and be on our way. We've got a hell of a show tonight, don't we? The Barnaby Traveling Circus' official grand re-opening. I never thought I'd see the day." Barnaby clumsily bent his head down onto his shoulder to wipe away his tears, and quickly went from depressed motherless boy to confident anxious ringmaster. "It's show time!"

* * *

><p>Two hours later, he found himself producing a much needed exhale and watching his breath fog up his mirror. Sanguine dutifully stood by his side and slid the pristine pair of white gloves off his prosthetic hands. "Almost wish I was able to do that myself one more time," Barnaby said.<p>

"Kid, you played with fire, and you got burned. Literally! And then you allowed that psycho Julius to snap your arms off. Don't regret the decisions you made, Charles. That's no way to live."

Barnaby smiled at his father. He was right, after all. Everything he did in the past brought him to this moment, and in this moment he felt the greatest he had felt in years. Tonight's show was a success. Better than a success, actually. The tent was jam-packed with people. The locals had plenty of time to forget about all of the mishaps that were associated with the circus a year ago. He was honestly stunned at the incredible turn-out.

If all of his past decisions had brought him to this proud moment, then it must have all been for a good reason, right? Why regret any of it?

"You didn't take a kid tonight," Barnaby noted, suddenly realizing it as he replayed the events of the evening over in his head.

Sanguine swallowed the lump of saliva that quickly collected in his the back of his throat after hearing that. "I didn't want to disappoint you. I stopped myself from doing it, for your sake." The clown looked at himself in the mirror. "I was good tonight. For the first time in decades, I was a good clown."

"You didn't have to do that, dad. The whole reason I started this circus in the first place was so that you could freely do that as you wished."

"I know, but I feel like this is a whole new era, a fresh start for you. I caused you too much trouble by doing all of that. This is your time to shine, Charles." He pinched his son's cheek like he always did. "It'll be tough quitting cold turkey, but I'll do it for you."

Barnaby grinned. "You're going to be a great good clown, father."

Sanguine eyed the clock on the wall to his right. "Alright, I have to get this shit off my face before it starts to seep into my wrinkles. You okay for the night?"

"Yes, I can handle it all from here. Thanks again. Without you, tonight wouldn't have been possible." The two hugged it out and Sanguine went to leave.

"Love you, son." Sanguine opened the door to Barnaby's office, and on the other side he discovered a familiar face. "Holy shit… Lura?" Barnaby wasn't even looking in that direction, but when he heard his father say her name, his head turned so fast that he nearly gave himself whiplash. It was true. She was really standing there. And it didn't seem possible, but she looked more breathtakingly beautiful than she ever did before.

"Hi, Barnaby. I saw the show tonight, I don't know if you saw me in the audience."

"No, no I didn't see you. You—you were there?"

"Yeah. I saw the posters and signs all over town lately and I figured I'd see the new and improved Barnaby Traveling Circus. You did a great job putting it back together." She seemed so innocent and… _broken, she seems broken_, Barnaby thought. _It's as if she's about to break down completely at any second._

"Come in, please." Barnaby said as he got up. He locked eyes with his father and signaled him to leave; Sanguine gave him a thumb's up.

"Nice to see you again, Lura," the old man said. She waved daintily at him and turned back to Barnaby. The clown, meanwhile, quietly departed.

"So… what happened to your arms? I noticed they seemed a little… lifeless tonight."

"Go ahead, touch them." She gently squeezed his sleeve and jumped when she realized they were prosthetics. "I lost both of them in a fire about a year ago. Not too long after you left me, as a matter of fact."

"It's been that long already? Jesus." They stared at each other for some time, not exactly sure what to say next.

"So, um, what have you been doing lately?" He offered her his seat, but she cordially denied the offer.

"I don't want to stay long, I just wanted to pop in quick and see how you were doing."

"Lura, for crying out loud, we haven't seen each other in a year! I'm not doing anything for the rest of the night, do you maybe want to get some coffee?"

She curled her lips into a smile. "Actually… I was going take a walk on the beach, down to the pier and back. Just to clear my mind before I head home to all that chaos. Care to join me?"

Barnaby couldn't believe this was happening. "Sure, yeah, just give me two minutes, okay?"

"Okay," she replied, giggling like a thirteen-year-old agreeing to go on her first date. "Dou you, um, need some help?"

Barnaby gave a quizzical look, and she embarrassingly pointed to his arms. "Oh, no, it's alright, I can handle it myself. I'll meet you outside the train." She nodded in response and awkwardly left the room, and he watched her exit the train from his window. Barnaby never got undressed and dressed faster than he did in that moment, including when he had functioning upper limbs.

* * *

><p>"So, you mentioned the chaos back at home. What's that all about? Where are you living these days?"<p>

"Actually, that's part of the reason why I hoped you'd agree to a brief chat with me, Barnaby. I… have a baby." The two of them had only made it a few paces down the boardwalk when she dropped that bombshell. He stopped dead in his tracks, making sure he heard her correctly. "Um, _we_ have a baby. She's yours, Charles."

"Holy shit. You're sure?"

"Got the paternity results a few days ago. She is definitely yours."

"Well… tell me about her. How old is she? What's her name?"

"Alright, calm down, anxious pants!" The two of them laughed, something they hadn't done together in ages. "Her name is Annabelle, and she's three months old."

"Wow. I have a daughter. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine myself having a child. Mainly because I was terrified of what my father might do if he ever got his hands on it." Lura was rather surprised that he said that. The truth about Sanguine's vice was still something relatively new to her. "I know this is a bit sudden, but… do you think there might ever be a chance of me seeing her?" She looked at him. There was so much hope in his eyes. His business was now booming again, and now the love of his life has reappeared with the news that he is a father. How could she possibly take away the opportunity for him to meet Annabelle?

"Yeah, eventually. To be honest, Barnaby, I'm still a little hesitant to be around you, as I hope you would understand."

"Oh, completely. I'm not—I didn't imply that—I—Lura, I don't expect you to come crawling back to me. I mean this is our first time seeing each other since… since you discovered how much of a monster I am. _Was._"

"Barnaby, you… well, you were a monster. And I've had a really long time to think this all over. I don't think I can take you back." She watched the hope in his eyes fade away. "At least not yet." The hope was still there, only slightly.

"Lura, I can't even begin to describe how immensely sorry I am for everything I put you through. And I do mean that. I've had time to think this over too. I never thought I would ever see you again to be frank, but… but seeing you now has made me realize that I did—I _do_—have immense feelings for you. We always made our relationship about sex. And I don't know how you saw it, but to me there was definitely an emotional connection as well. When I proposed to you that night, in the restaurant, remember? That was totally sincere. I hope you do understand that, darling. I realize now the pain that I put you through, and to know that I've done such heinous things to the person I love more than anything… it truly breaks my heart!" He was sobbing now, and he threw his head into her bosom. She comforted him right away, wrapping her arms around his back and rubbing it in circles.

"I believe you, Charles. I think this time apart did us some good. We both realized what the problem was, and I think now we know how we can fix it if we ever want to move forward."

"You're saying that you _would_ want to move forward?" Barnaby asked, lifting his head up to look at her.

"I don't think I can handle being a single mom, Barnaby. I want Annabelle to have some kind of father figure at some point in her life."

"I can be that," he said with a big grin on his face. He chuckled. "I can be a father figure, if you want me to be."

Lura smiled back. "Okay, we'll have to play it by ear." The two of them made their way to the end of the pier and gazed out at the vast emptiness of the Atlantic Ocean. The full moon shone brightly down upon them as they reconnected further. She slowly started to nestle into him, hoping he would wrap his arm around her and bring her in closer. But then she remembered that he no longer possessed that ability.

"I hate to be a nuisance, but do you think we can take the arms off? Just for a second?"

"Why?" he asked.

"I don't like it. I know that may sound insensitive, but it makes you seem artificial. The Barnaby I knew wouldn't have relied on a crutch. He would've walked around proudly without any arms and shown the world what he can still do without them."

He smiled. "I think that Barnaby is long gone, he died the day you left me."

"Well I'm back. Which means that Barnaby is back again too." She caressed his face and then slowly brought her hands down to the prosthetics. She glanced at him, asking for permission with her eyes; he replied with a nod. Lura carefully undid the clasps holding the fake limbs onto his body and carefully placed them on the wooden planks beneath their feet. She wrapped her arms around him and sighed contently. "I always loved you, Barnaby."

"I loved you too, Lura." Barnaby gazed out beyond her shoulder and faintly made out the circus train in the distance. The tent had finally come down and the troupe was all checking in for the evening, resting up so that they could prepare for the next show tomorrow night. Except it didn't look like there was going to be a next show. As he focused on the train he witnessed the front car burst into flames in an unexpected explosion. Lura quickly snapped her head around and the couple watched the train go up in flames.

"DAD!" Barnaby shouted. He went to make a run for it, thinking that the five minutes it would take him to get to the scene of the incident would change the fact that his father and the rest of his performers were being burned alive in a wall of flames. But he couldn't run away. Lura still had a hold around him, and when he tried to run off, she quickly pulled him back. She slammed him against the edge of the pier. _Are you sure you're ready to do this?_ she asked herself. Quickly responding to herself with a resounding _yes_, she pushed Barnaby over the edge.

The fall only took about two seconds, from the top of the thirty-foot pier to the surface of the ocean, but to both Barnaby and Lura, it felt like thirty minutes. In that stretched-out bit of time, she started to think over why she did that. _Didn't I just confess that I loved him? Did I love him? Do I love him? What was I thinking? I just killed the man I thought I loved!_ And then she managed to reassure herself that it was all for the best. _You were supposed to do this, Lura. That's why you came here. You had to put an end to this madness. Let Barnaby get what he deserves. You deserve happiness. You deserve a life free of worry. Free of him. Go along with it. Stand there at the top of the pier and watch him fall. Watch him drown. Watch him die._

Barnaby, meanwhile, thought only one thought during the plummet. _Lura… why? Why? I love you, Lura. Why? _He was still completely blindsided by all that was happening. Did he really just watch his father die in a train car explosion? Did his lover really just take his arms off and push him over the edge of a pier? He didn't really know what to make of the whole situation. By the time he finally asked out loud, "Why?!", he was fully submersed. He kicked and flailed for a few moments, but his legs gave out quickly. They couldn't keep him afloat. He was top-heavy. He had no arms to swim with. Charles Barnaby took his last breath of air and his first breath of ocean water. The last thing he saw before the dark waves engulfed him was Lura, his lover and his murderer. He died motherless, fatherless, and Lura-less. But at least he got to experience one last hell of a show.

* * *

><p>Lura, Jacob, and Annabelle waited patiently in the lobby for the visitation hour to begin. Jacob was busy playing games on his phone while Lura just sat there watching the clock, checking in on Annabelle in her car seat every few seconds. She was sound asleep. That was the miracle of this baby: she spent all her time either eating or sleeping. She never cried, and she never fussed. <em>Such a perfectly content result of such horrific circumstances<em>, Lura thought.

"Hey, mom," Jacob said, lifting his head up from his phone. "Could I borrow a dollar for the vending machine?"

"Sure, Jacob." Lura smiled as she went into her purse to give the boy his money. A few months ago Jacob finally started calling her mom, and it was one of the proudest moments of her life. It was the first time that anyone ever addressed her by that title. For eighteen years she had been a mother, but she had never been referred to as such.

Finally the visitation period began and the three of them went inside to see Victor. _He's really committing to this whole beard thing, isn't he?_ Lura wasn't sure if she was a huge fan of it. _But hey_, she reasoned with herself, _prison changes people._

"So it all went smoothly?" Victor asked, not wanting to directly mention their assassination publicly for all to hear.

"Yes," Lura replied, with a content sigh. "The Barnaby Traveling Circus is no more." Victor grinned, elated to hear that the man who destroyed his family and was responsible for so much pain in Lura's life was gone for good. Jacob grinned too, glad to acknowledge that the man who tormented him had died horrifically in a freak train explosion. Except they all knew there was nothing freaky about it. It was all planned. The explosives were planted by Lura herself just seconds before Barnaby met her outside for their stroll on the boardwalk. And it was Jacob's duty to set off the bomb, watching intently from afar, waiting for the right moment for Lura to make her move on Barnaby. It couldn't have gone better.

"You seem happy, sweetheart," he told her.

"I am happy. For once in my life, I can finally say that I am very happy. So… did that brawl ever happen?"

"Oh, no. Turns out that guy was just showing off. He wasn't really going to beat me up. Good thing, because I probably would've shit my pants if someone did actually try to fight me!" Jacob laughed at that, and Lura rolled her eyes like a typical mother reacting to a vulgar comment. _This seems so normal_, she thought to herself. _It can't get any better than this. _"But that's what the beard is for. Makes me look more rugged, right?" Neither Jacob nor Lura ended up responding. Trying to quickly change the subject, Victor asked, "So… any other news?"

"Oh, yes, actually." Lura started to tell him about how their neighbors started to complain about their hedges growing over into their driveway, but Victor wasn't really listening. He looked at her and couldn't help but feel sorry. _This poor girl has been through too much. She may seem happy, and she may tell people she's happy, but she isn't._

Victor remembered how unhinged she became a year ago. When Victor had finally come to when the storm hit, he went downstairs and found Lura rocking herself in the corner of the room while Julius was sliced to bits in the kitchen. And that's not a figurative statement. Julius' body was hacked into little three-inch-by-three-inch cubes. Like chunks of meat that one would feed to a lion for a snack. Victor buried both Parker's decaying body and Julius' remains in the backyard, in the same hole that Jacob was originally buried in. Not sure what to do with Lura after her psychotic break, Victor had no choice but to commit her for a brief time to allow her to sort herself out. The next day, thanks to Julius' release of the CONFIDENTIAL file before he invaded the Carson residence, Victor was arrested and convicted for the conspired murder of Marcus Buchanan, Duncan Manchester, and Penelope Jenkins (later to be known by the Barnaby Traveling Circus as Cassandra, the astounding mermaid). Francis Huckabee, Ellen's father, was also tried and imprisoned too. He didn't make it, however; just two months behind bars and he suffered a fatal heart attack. Jacob, meanwhile, stayed with a family friend while he was guardian-less.

After five months, Lura was released from the psychiatric ward and moved back into the Carson residence. She eventually had the baby. All that time being institutionalized prevented her from getting that abortion she planned on getting. Jacob was an incredible brother figure and helped her out so much. He would come over after school to help her out. At least that's what they told people. Jacob really raised that baby; Lura was too checked out for the first month or so after being in shock that this was her reality. She considered plenty of times getting in touch with Ruuxa and having her exchange Annabelle's soul into Parker's body, but Jacob always managed to talk her out of it. As she wasted away into nothing, Jacob stayed in the house and took care of all the baby's feedings and changings and baths and so on. It was about a month ago when Lura finally came to her senses and her maternal instinct finally kicked in. She realized that the only way to truly get out of this mental block was to put the past completely and utterly behind her. So they devised the plan to put an end to the Barnaby Traveling Circus for good.

It was also around that time when she also had a paternity test conducted. She thought all along that she would be better off not knowing who Annabelle's father was, but the curiosity was eating away at her, and she was afraid she would go mad again if she kept herself in the dark about it any longer.

Victor anxiously twiddled his thumbs, waiting for her to bring up the results of the paternity test. He knew she received them just a few days ago, and he knew that she knew the results. But he also knew that she wouldn't dare tell him. Not even Jacob knew. Whether it was Barnaby's or Parker's, the result would be too embarrassing for her to share with anyone. Victor desperately wanted to know; not just because he was curious, but because he wanted her to feel like he was her confidant, someone whom she could trust enough to confide something like that. He felt like it only distanced them more. As if her being institutionalized and him being imprisoned didn't physically distance them enough, now he was being kept in the dark both literally and metaphorically.

The visitation hour ended, and Victor walked away knowing no more about Annabelle's father than he did before.

* * *

><p>Victor returned to his cell for the remainder of the day, choosing not to engage with any of the other inmates or even touch his food. He couldn't help but hate himself for putting him and his family in this situation. All these years he hated Ellen for putting him up to that murder conspiracy, but he finally caved, and he was ultimately responsible. The only person to blame was himself. And if he hadn't caved, he would be back at home, snuggling up next to Lura and raising Jacob and Annabelle together as a family.<p>

_Is tonight the night I finally do it? _That became the question he asked himself every night for the past two weeks. He'd practiced tying his bed sheets into a noose during his downtime. He mastered it to the point that he could make it in about thirty seconds. _But eventually I will get out of here, and eventually I will be there for Lura and Jacob and Annabelle. But that's going to be so far down the road. Lura will probably fall out of love with me by then, Jacob won't need to be raised by me, and Annabelle will have survived her first decade without a father figure, and likely won't see the need for one anymore. _

Victor grabbed his sheets in his fists. _Is tonight the night I finally do it?_

* * *

><p>Lura, Jacob, and baby Annabelle leisurely drove back to the Carson house. She made dinner for the three of them, and then gave her baby girl a bath. While Jacob went upstairs in his room to work on his science project, Lura got Annabelle dressed in a fresh diaper and her pajamas, and then carried her downstairs into the basement. "Time to do our nighttime routine, sweetheart."<p>

Lura pulled on the light bulb cord to illuminate her way, and they made it to the back room. Against the wall was a coffin-shaped box. With her childfree hand, Lura lifted the box to reveal none other than Parker's body, dead now over a year. He was wrapped in damp white towels, as if he were wearing a cheap mummy costume. The smell caused both Lura's and Annabelle's eyes to water, as the towels lining Parker's body were soaked in alcohol.

The minute she found out that Parker was without a doubt Annabelle's father, she dug up the hole in the backyard and kept his body in the basement, embalming and preserving as much of him as possible. He was mostly decayed at this point, with the worms and bugs having eaten away at him for those several months spent in the ground, but the parts that remained were still intact thanks to Lura's procedures.

She reached down and unwrapped the towel around his face, and smiled brightly as she became reacquainted with his visage. "Alright, Annabelle, say goodnight to daddy!" Lura picked up Annabelle's chubby right wrist and waved it up and down in Parker's direction. Then she leaned down and lowered her baby into the box, carefully pressing Annabelle's mouth onto Parker's cold lips for a brief goodnight kiss.

"Say goodnight to daddy, Annabelle. Goodnight, daddy!" Lura then brought her own lips to Parker's, remaining there a bit longer than Annabelle did. A tear fell out of the corner of her eye and onto Parker's green cheek. She gently combed his few remaining hairs with her fingers, and then wiped the tear off of her son's face. "Goodnight."


End file.
